


.^ ^*. 












"'^y. .c^"^^ 






-^ 



!>' 






^ s ^^^ 



o^^ 


^r. '^ 












^ "-^r- 


A' 




















^ 


-.^ 


\ 


^ ^ f 










"" 






■^ 


0^^ 


' 


-^ 


-^ 


'^ x^^^ 


'/ 


x^" 


■^^ 



%^^' 

#% 



.^^■% 



'^^ ,^' 






> i ^^ ""- 




^-^ ^ 


^ 


. " ^^ 






-^^./^m'- 


.^■^ 


' c^ ^> 


'^> ' -^. ,.-- 


.' '^'^ ^ -. .^ . 


'^^ '''' / s '^ 




O N ^ '/•' ' * 6 •^ 


-i.*^^ \ i fi , "O ^ '' ' '- * ,\ 


^ \ ,. 'f . 0-. 


^\y:.^-'-% y 



' 8 I \ \V 



Probably no book of its kind in this country has 
attained sucL ^ wonderful popularity as Nattrral 
Law in the Sjnritual World. 

The clear and simple style is charged with an 
enthusiasm and carries a wealth of religious expe- 
rience which capture the heart. A teacher who, 
with such gifts, founds his teaching upon the facts 
of Qiristian experience, is always sure of a wsl- 
cone. * * ■«■ When, besides, he deals with the 
relations of science and religion, he presents a 
suJJect that is not only of great intellectual inter- 
e* to most persons of education, but to many 
tiousands also is a topic of the most acute personal 
significance. 





r^^ NATURAL LAW 

IN THE ^ 



\ SPIRITUAL WORLD 



HENRY DRUMMOND. 



ffc 




^U23 




Copyright. i89y, by Henr>- Ait< 




mm 









^Mi Natural Law in the i»i 
'^M Spiritual World ^M 




-B^ 



Is 



■vu. 



^S:i--^ 



HENRY ALTEMIIS. MANUFACTURER, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



m 






CONTENTS. 



PAOB 

Peefacb, c . . . V 

Inteoduction, 3 

Biogenesis, 65 

Degeneratiok, 87 

Geowth, . Ill 

Death, 129^ 

MOETIFICATION, . 159 

Eteenal Life, • 183 

Envieonment, 227 

CONFOEMITY TO TyPE, . . . • . . . 257 

Semi-Paeasitism, ......... 285 

Paeasitism, 807 

Classification, .....•• ^ . . 331 



PREFACE. 



No class of works is received with more suspi- 

on, I had almost said derision, than those which 

eal with Science and Religion. Science is tired 

f reconciliations between two things which never 

lould have been contrasted; Religion is offended 

7 the patronage of an ally which it professes not 

need ; and the critics have rightly discovered 

/,t, in most cases where Science is either pitted 

^ . inst Religion or fused with it, there is some 

1 al misconception to begin with as to the scope 

d province of either. But although no initial 

otest, probably, will save this work from the 

happy reputation of its class, the thoughtful 

nd will perceive that the fact of its subject- 

' ^.tter being Law — a property peculiar neither to 

^- ience nor to Religion — at once places it on a 

, mewhat different footing. 

The real problem I have set myself may be 
V. ated in a sentence. Is there not reason to be- 
^f3ve that many of the Laws of the Spiritual 
A 7"orld, hitherto regarded as occupying an entirely 



Vi PREFACE. 

separate province, are simply the Laws of the 
Natural World? Can we identify the Natural 
Laws, or any one of them, in the Spiritual sphere ? 
That vague lines everywhere run through the 
Spiritual World is already beginning to be recog- 
nized. Is it possible to link them with those great 
lines running through the visible universe which 
iwe call the Natural Laws, or are they fundament- 
ally distinct? In a word, Is the Supernatural 
natural or unnatural ? 

I may, perhaps, be allowed to answer these 
questions in the form in which they have answered 
themselves to myself. And I must apologize at 
the outset for personal references which, but for 
the clearness they may lend to the statement, I 
would surely avoid. 

It has been my privilege for some years to ad- 
dress regularly two very different audiences on 
two very different themes. On week-days I have 
lectured to a class of students on the Natural 
Sciences, and on Sundays to an audience consist- 
ing for the most part of working men on subjects 
of a moral and religious character. I cannot say 
that this collocation ever appeared as a difficulty 
to myself, but to certain of my friends it was more 
than a problem. It was solved to me, however, 
at first, by what then seemed the necessities of 
the case — I must keep the two departments en- 
tirely by themselves. They lay at opposite poles 
of thought ; and for a time I succeeded in keep- 
ing the Science and the Religion shut off from 
one another in two separate compartments of my 



PREFACE, 



mind. But gradually the wall of partition showed 
symptoms of giving way. The two fountains of 
knowledge also slowly began to overflow, and 
finally their waters met and mingled. The great 
change was in the compartment which held the 
Religion. It was not that the well there was 
dried ; still less that the fermenting waters were 
washed away by the flood of Science. The actual 
contents remained the same. But the crystals of 
former doctrine were dissolved ; and as they pre- 
cipitated themselves once more in definite forms, 
I observed that the Crystalline System was 
changed. New channels also for outward expres- 
sion opened, and some of the old closed up ; and 
I found the truth running out to my audience on 
the Sundays by the week-day outlets. In other 
words, the subject-matter Religion had taken on 
the method of expression of Science, and I dis- 
covered myself enunciating Spiritual Law in the 
exact terms of Biology and Physics. 

Now this was not simply a scientific coloring 
given to Religion, the mere freshening of the theo- 
logical air with natural facts and illustrations. It 
was an entire re-casting of truth. And when I 
came seriously to consider what it involved, I saw, 
or seemed to see, that it meant essentially the in- 
troduction of Natural Law into the Spiritual 
World. It was not, I repeat, that new and de- 
tailed analogies of Phenomena rose into view — 
although material for Parable lies unnoticed and 
unused on the field of recent Science in inexhaust- 
ible profusion. But Law has a still grander func- 



PREFACE. 



tion to discharge towards Religion than Parable. 
There is a deeper unity between the two King- 
doms than the analogy of their Phenomena — a 
unity which the poet's vision, more quick than 
the theologian's, has already dimly seen : 

" And verily manj^ thinkers of this age, 
Aye, many Christian teachers, half in heaven. 
Are wrong in just my sense, who understood 
Our natural world too insularly, as if 
No spiritual counterpart completed it, 
Consummating its meaning, rounding all 
To justice and perfection, line bij line, 
Form bij f 07111, nothing single nor alone, 
The great below clenched by the great above." • 

The function of Parable in religion is to exhibit 
" form by form." Law undertakes the profounder 
task of comparing " line by line." Thus Natural 
Phenomena serve mainly an illustrative function 
in Religion. Natural Law, on the other hand, 
could it be traced in the Spiritual World, would 
have an important scientific value — it would offer 
Religion a new credential. The effect of the in- 
troduction of Law among the scattered Phenom- 
ena of Nature has simply been to make Science, 
to transform knowledge into eternal truth. The 
same crystallizing touch is needed in Religiouc 
Can it be said that the Phenomena of the Spirit- 
ual World are other than scattered ? Can we 
shut our eyes to the fact that the religious opin- 
ions of mankind are in a state of flux? And 
"when we regard the uncertainty of current be* 
1 Aurora Leigh. 



PREFACE. \% 



liefs, the war of creeds, the havoc of inevitable aa 
well as of idle doubt, the reluctant abandonment 
of early faith by those who would cherish it longer 
if they could, is it not plain that the one thing 
thinking men are waiting for is the introduction 
of Law among the Phenomena of the Spiritual 
World ? When that comes we shall offer to such 
men a truly scientific theology. And the Reign 
of Law will transform the whole Spiritual World 
as it has already transformed the Natural World. 

I confess that even when in the first dim vision, 
the organizing hand of Law moved among the un- 
ordered truths of my Spiritual World, poor and 
scantily-furnished as it was, there seemed to come 
over it the beauty of a transfiguration. The 
change was as great as from the old chaotic world 
of Pythagoras to the symmetrical and harmonious 
universe of Newton. My Spiritual World before 
was a chaos of facts; my Theology, a Pythagorean 
system trying to make the best of Phenomena 
apart from the idea of Law. I make no charge 
against Theology in general. I speak of my own. 
And I say that I saw it to be in many essential 
respects centuries behind every department of 
Science I knew. It was the one region still un- 
possessed by Law. I saw then why men of Science 
distrust Theology ; why those who have learned 
to look upon Law as Authority grow cold to it — 
it was the Great Exception. 

I have alluded to the genesis of the idea in my 
own mind partly for another reason — to show its 
naturalness. Certainly I never premeditated any- 



PREFACE. 



thing to myself so objectionable and so unwarrant- 
able in itself, as either to read Theology into 
Science or Science into Theology. Nothing could 
be more artificial than to attempt this on the 
speculative side ; and it has been a substantial re- 
lief to me throughout that the idea rose up thus 
in the course of practical work and shaped itself 
day by day unconsciously. It might be charged, 
nevertheless, that I was all the time, whether con- 
sciously or unconsciously, simply reading my 
Theology into my Science. And as this would 
hopelessly vitiate the conclusions arrived at, I 
must acquit myself at least of the intention. Of 
nothing have I been more fearful throughout than 
of making Nature parallel with my own or with 
any creed. The only legitimate questions one dare 
put to Nature are those which concern universal 
human good and the Divine interpretation of 
things. These I conceive may be there actually 
studied at first-hand, and before their purity is 
soiled by human touch. We have Truth in Na- 
ture as it came from God. And it has to be read 
with the same unbiassed mind, the same open eye, 
the same faith, and the same reverence as all other 
Revelation. All that is found there, whatever 
its place in Theology, whatever its orthodoxy or 
heterodoxy, whatever its narrowness or its breadth, 
we are bound to accept as Doctrine from which 
on the lines of Science there is no escape. 

When this presented itself to me as a method, I 
felt it to be due to it — were it only to secure, so far 
as that was possible, that no former bias should in- 



PREFACE. ^ 

terfere with the integrity of the results — to begin 
again at the beginning and reconstruct my Spirit- 
ual World step by step. The result of that inquiry, 
so far as its expression in systematic form is con- 
cerned, I have not given in this book. To recon- 
struct a Spiritual Religion, or a department of 
Spiritual Religion — for this is all the method can 
pretend to — on the lines of Nature would be an 
attempt from which one better equipped in both 
directions might well be pardoned if he shrank. 
My object at present is the humbler one of ven- 
turing a simple contribution to practical Religion 
along the lines indicated. What Bacon predicates 
of the Natural World, Natiira enim non nisi par- 
endo vincitur^ is also true, as Christ had already 
told us, of the Spiritual World. And I present 
a few samples of the religious teaching referred ta 
formerly as having been prepared under the influ- 
ence of scientific ideas in the hope that they may 
be useful first of all in tliis direction. 

I would, however, carefully point out that 
though their unsystematic arrangement here may 
create the impression that these papers are merely 
isolated readings in Religion pointed by casual 
scientific truths, they are organically connected 
by a single principle. Nothing could be more^ 
false both to Science and to Religion than at- 
tempts to adjust the two spheres by making out 
ingenious points of contact in detail. The solu- 
tion of this great question of conciliation, if one 
may still refer to a problem so gratuitous, must 
be general rather than particular. The basis in a 



PREFACE. 



common principle — the Continuity of Law — can 
alone save specific applications from ranking as 
mere coincidences, or exempt them from the re- 
proach of being a hybrid between two things 
which must be related by the deepest affinities or 
remain forever separate. 

To the objection that even a basis in Law is no 
warrant for so great a trespass as the intrusion 
into another field of thought of the principles of 
Natural Science, I would reply that in this I find 
I am following a lead which in other departments 
has not only been allowed but has achieved results 
as rich as they were unexpected. What is the 
Physical Politic of Mr. Walter Bagehot but the 
extension of Natural Law to the Political World ? 
What is the Biological Sociology of Mr. Herbert 
Spencer but the application of Natural Law to 
the Social World ? Will it be charged that the 
splendid achievements of such thinkers are hy- 
brids between things which Nature has meant to 
remain apart ? Nature usually solves such prob- 
lems for herself. Liappropriate hybridism is 
checked by the Law of Sterility. Judged by this 
great Law these modern developments of our 
knowledge stand uncondemned. Within their 
own sphere the results of Mr. Hebert Spencer 
are far from sterile — the application of Biology to 
Political Economy is already revolutionizing the 
Science. If the introduction of Natural Law into 
the Social sphere is no violent contradiction but a 
genuine and permanent contribution, shall its 
further extension to the Spiritual sphere be counted 



PREFACE. 



an extravagance ? Does not the Principle of Con- 
tinuity demand its application in every direction ? 
To carry it as a working principle into so lofty a 
region may appear impracticable. Difficulties lie 
on the threshold which may seem, at first sight, in« 
surmountable. But obstacles to a true method 
only test its validity. And he who honestly faces 
the task may find relief in feeling that whatever 
else of crudeness and imperfection mar it, the 
attempt is at least in harmony with the thought 
and movement of his time. 

That these papers were not designed to appear 
in a collective form, or indeed to court the more; 
public light at all, needs no disclosure. They are 
published out of regard to the wish of known and 
unknown friends by whom, when in a fugitive 
form, they were received with so curious an 
interest as to make one feel already that there are 
minds which such forms of truth may touch. In 
making the present selection, partly from manu- 
script, and partly from articles already published, 
I have been guided less by the wish to constitute 
the papers a connected series than to exhibit the 
application of the principle in various directions. 
They will be found, therefore, of unequal interest 
and value, according to the standpoint from which 
they are regarded. Thus some are designed with 
a directly practical and popular bearing, others 
being more expository, and slightly apologetic in 
tone. The risk of combining two objects so very 
different is somewhat serious. But for the reason 
named, having taken this responsibility, the only 



PREFACE. 



compensation I can offer is to indicate which of , 
the papers incline to one side or to the other. , 
" Degeneration, " " Growth, " " Mortification, " 
" Conformity to Type," " Semi-Parasitism," and 
" Parasitism " belong to the more practical order \ . 
and while one or two are intermediate, " Bio- ■ 
genesis," " Death," and " Eternal Life " may be 
offered to those who find the atmosphere of the 
former uncongenial. It will not disguise itself, 
however, that, owing to the circumstances in 
which they were prepared, all the papers are more 
or less practical in their aim ; so that to the merely 
•philosophical reader there is little to be offered 
except — and that only with the greatest diffidence 
— the Introductory chapter. 

In the Introduction, which the general reader 
may do well to ignore, I have briefly stated the 
case for Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 
The extension of Analogy to Laws, or rather the 
extension of the Laws themselves, so far as known 
to me, is new ; and I cannot hope to have escaped 
the mistakes and misadventures of a first explora- 
tion in an unsurveyed land. So general has been 
the survey that I have not even paused to define 
specifically to what departments of the Spiritual 
World exclusively the principle is to be applied. 
The danger of making a new principle apply too 
widely inculcates here the utmost caution. One 
thing is certain, and I state it pointedly, the ap- 
plication of Natural Law to the Spiritual World 
has decided and necessary limits. And if else- 
where with undue enthusiasm I seem to magnify 



PREFACE. XV 



the principle at stake, the exaggeration — like the 
extreme amplification of the moon's disc when 
near the horizon — must be charged to that almost 
necessary aberration of light which distorts e very- 
new idea while it is yet slowly climbing to its 
zenith. 

In what follows the Introduction, except in the 
setting, there is nothing new. I trust there is 
nothing new. When I began to follow out these 
lines, I had no idea where they would lead me. I 
was prepared, nevertheless, at least for the time, 
to be loyal to the method throughout, and share 
with Nature whatever consequences might ensue. 
But in almost every case, after stating what ap- 
peared to be the truth in words gathered directly 
from the lips of Nature, I was sooner or later 
startled by a certain similarity in the general idea 
to something I had heard before, and this often 
developed in a moment, and when I was least ex- 
pecting it, into recognition of some familiar article 
of faith. I was not watching for this result. I 
did not begin by tabulating the doctrines, as I did 
the Laws of Nature, and then proceed with the 
attempt to pair them. The majority of them seemed 
at first too far removed from the natural world 
even to suggest this. Still less did I begin with 
doctrines and work downward to find their rela- 
tions in the natural sphere. It was the opposite 
process entirely. I ran up the Natural Law as far , 
as it would go, and the appropriate doctriiie seldom 
even loomed in sight till I had reached the top. 
Then it burst into view in a single moment. 



xvi PREFACE. 

I can scarcely now say whether in those mo« 
ments I was more overcome with thankfulness 
that Nature was so like Revelation, or mere filled 
with wonder that Revelation was so like Nature. 
Nature, it is true, is a part of Revelation — a much 
greater part doubtless than is yet believed — and 
one could have anticipated nothing but harmony 
here. But that a derived Theology, in spite of 
the venerable verbiage which has gathered round 
it, should be at bottom and in all cardinal re- 
spects so faithful a transcript of " the truth as it 
is in Nature " came as a surprise and to me, at 
least, as a rebuke. How, under the rigid neces- 
sity of incorporating in its system much that 
seemed nearly unintelligible, and much that was 
barely credible, Theology has succeeded so pep 
fectly in adhering through good report and ill to 
what in the main are truly the lines of Nature^ 
awakens a new admiration for those who con- 
structed and kept this faith. But however nobly 
it has held its ground. Theology must feel to-day 
that the modern world calls for a further proof. 
Nor will the best Theology resent this demand ; 
it also demands it. Theology is searching on. 
every hand for another echo of the Voice of which 
Revelation also is the echo, that out of the mouths 
of two witnesses its truths should be established. 
That other echo can only come from Nature. 
Hitherto its voice has been muffled. But now 
that Science has made the world around articulate, 
it speaks to Religion with a twofold purpose. la 



PREFACE, xvii 



the first place, it offers to corroborate Theology, 
in the second to purify it. 

If the removal of suspicion from Theology is 
of urgent moment, not less important is the re- 
moval of its adulterations. These suspicions, 
many of them at least, are new ; in a sense they 
mark progress. But the adulterations are the 
artificial accumulations of centuries of uncon- 
trolled speculation. They are the necessary re- 
sult of the old method and the warrant for its re- 
vision — they mark the impossibility of progress 
without the guiding and restraining hand of Law. 
The felt exhaustion of the former method, the 
want of corroboration for the old evidence, the 
protest of reason against the monstrous over- 
growths which conceal the real lines of truth, 
these summon us to the search for a surer and 
more scientific system. With truths of the theo- 
logical order, with dogmas which often depend 
for their existence on a particular exegesis, with 
propositions which rest for their evidence upon a 
balance of probabilities, or upon the weight of au- 
thority ; with doctrines which every age and na- 
tion may make or unmake, which each sect may 
tamper with, and which even the individual may 
modif}^ for himself, a second court of appeal has 
become an imperative necessity. 

Science, therefore, may yet have to be called 
upon to arbitrate at some points between conflict- 
ing creeds. And while there are some depart- 
ments of Theology where its jurisdiction cannot 
be sought, there are others in which Nature may 



PREFACE, 



yet have to define the contents as well as the 
limits of belief. 

What I would desire especially is a thoughtful 
consideration of the method. The applications 
ventured upon here may be successful or unsuc- 
cessful. But they would more than satisfy me if 
they suggested a method to others whose less 
clumsy hands might work it out more profitably. 
For I am convinced of the fertility of such a 
method at the present time. It is recognized by 
all that the younger and abler minds of this age 
find the most serious difficulty in accepting or re- 
taining the ordinary forms of belief. Especially 
is this true of those whose culture is scientific. 
And the reason is palpable. No man can study 
modern Science without a change coming over his 
view of truth. What impresses him about Nature 
is its solidity. He is there standing upon actual 
things, among fixed laws. And the integrity of 
the scientific method so seizes him that all other 
forms of truth begin to appear comparatively un- 
stable. He did not know before that any form 
of truth could so hold him ; and the immediate 
effect is to lessen his interest in all that stands on 
other bases. This he feels in spite of himself; he 
struggles against it in vain ; and he finds, perhaps 
to his alarm, that he is drifting fast into what looks 
at first like Pure Positivism. This is an inevi- 
table result of the scientific training. It is quite 
erroneous to suppose that science ever overthrows 
Faith, if by that is implied that any natural trutlj 
can oppose successfully any single spiritual truth. 



PREFACE. 



Science cannot overthrow Faith ; but it shakes it. 
Its own doctrines, grounded in Nature, are so cer- 
tain, that the truths of Religion, resting to most 
men on Authority, are felt to be strangely inse- 
cure. The difficulty, therefore, which men of 
Science feel about Religion is real and inevitable, 
and in so far as Doubt is a conscientious tribute 
to the inviolability of Nature it is entitled to re- 
spect. 

None but those who have passed through it can 
appreciate the radical nature of the change 
wrought by Science in the whole mental attitude 
of its disciples. What they really cry out for in 
Religion is a new standpoint — a standpoint like 
their own» The one hope, therefore, for Science 
is more Science. Again, to quote Bacon — we 
shall hear enough from the moderns by-and-by — 
" This I dare affirm in knowledge of Nature, that 
a little natural philosophy, and the first entrance 
into it, doth dispose the opinion to atheism ; but, 
on the other side, much natural philosophy, and 
wading deep into it, will bring about men's minds 
to religion." ^ 

The application of similia similihus curantur was 
never more in point. If this is a disease, it is the 
disease of Nature, and the cure is more Nature. 
For what is this disquiet in the breasts of men but 
the loyal fear that Nature is being violated ? Men 
must oppose with every energy they possess what 
seems to them to oppose the eternal course of 
things. And the first step in their deliverance 
^ " Meditationes Sacr8e,"x. 



PREFACE. 



must be not to " reconcile " Nature and Religion, 
but to exhibit Nature in Religion. Even to con- 
vince them that there is no controversy between 
Religion and Science is insufficient. A mere flag 
of truce, in the nature of the case, is here im- 
possible; at least, it is only possible so long as 
neither party is sincere. No man who knows the 
splendor of scientific achievement or cares for it, 
no man who feels the solidity of its method or 
works with it, can remain neutral with regard to 
Religion. He must either extend his method into 
it, or, if that is impossible, oppose it to the knife. 
On the other hand, no one who knows the content 
of Christianity, or feels the universal need of a 
Religion, can stand idly by while the intellect of 
his age is slowly divorcing itself from it. What 
is required, therefore, to draw Science and Relig- 
ion together again — for they began the centuries 
hand in hand — is the disclosure of the natural- 
ness of the supernatural. Then, and not till then, 
will men see how true it is, that to be loyal to all 
of Nature, they must be loyal to the part defined 
as Spiritual. No science contributes to another 
without receiving a reciprocal benefit. And even 
as the contribution of Science to Religion is the 
vindication of the naturalness of the Superna- 
tural, so the gift of Religion to Science is the 
demonstration of the supernaturalness of the 
Natural. Thus, as the Supernatural becomes 
slowly Natural, will also the' Natural become 
slowly Supernatural, until in the impersonal 



PREFACE. 



authority of Law men everywhere recognize the 
Authority of God. 

To those who already find themselves fully 
nourished on the older foi'ms of truth, I do not 
commend these pages. They will find them su« 
periiaous. Nor is there any reason why they 
should mingle with light which is already clear 
the distorting rays of a foreign expression. 

But to those who are feeling their way to a 
Christian life, haunted now by a sense of insta- 
bility in the foundations of their faith, now 
brought to bay by specific doubt at one point rais- 
ing, as all doubt does, the question for the whole, 
I would hold up a light which has often been kind 
to me. There is a sense of solidity about a Law 
of Nature which belongs to nothing else in the 
world. Here, at last, amid all that is shifting, is 
one thing sure ; one thing outside ourselves, un- 
biassed, unprejudiced, uninfluenced by like or dis- 
like, by doubt or fear ; one thing that holds on its 
way to me eternally, incorruptible, and undefiled. 
This, more than anything else, makes one eager to 
see the Reign of Law traced in the Spiritual 
Sphere. And should this seem to some to offer 
only a surer, but not a higher Faith ; should the 
better ordering of the Spiritual World appear to 
satisfy the intellect at the sacrifice of reverence, 
simplicity, or love ; especially should it seem to 
substitute a Reign of Law and a Lawgiver for a 
Kingdom of Grace and a Personal God, I will say, 
with Browning : 



xxii PREFACE. 



•' I spoke r.^ T sa-^. 

I report, as a man may of God's work — rt/r.s Love, yet 
airs Laic. 

Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. Each fac- 
ulty tasked, 

To perceive Him, has gained an abyss where a dewdrop 
was asked.'' 



ANALYSIS OF INTRODUCTION. 



[For the sake of the general reader who may desire 
to pass at once to the practical applications, the follow- 
ing outline of the Introduction — devoted rather to 
general principles — is here presented.] 

PAET I. 

Natural Law in the Spiritual Sphere. 

1. The growth of the Idea of Law. 

2. Its gradual extension throughout every department 

of Knowledge. 

3. Except one. Religion hitherto the Great Exception. 

Why so ? 

4. Previous attempts to trace analogies between the 

Natural and Spiritual spheres. These have been 
limited to analogies between Fhenomena; and 
are useful mainly as illustrations. Analogies of 
Law would also have a Scientific value. 

5. Wherein that value would consist. (1) The Scien- 

tific demand of the age would be met ; (2) Greater 
clearness would be introduced into Eeligion prac- 
tically; (3) Theology, instead of resting on Au- 
thority, would rest equally on Nature. 

PAET II. 

The Law of Continuity. 

A priori argument for Natural Law in the spiritual 
world. 

1. The Law Discovered. 

2. " Defined. 

3. " Applied. 

4. The objection answered that the material of the 

Natural and Spiritual worlds being different they 
must be under different Laws. 

5. The existence of Laws in the Spiritual world other 

than the Natural Laws (1) improbable, (2) un- 
necessary, (3) unknown. Qualification. 

6. The Spiritual not the projection upward of the Nat- 

ural ; but the Natural the projection downward 
of the Spiritual. 

. ^1) 



'* l%ts method turns aside from hypotheses noi to be tested by any 
Icnown logical canon familiar to science^ whether the hypotheses 
claims support from intuition, aspiration or general plausibility. 
And, again, this method turns aside from ideal standards which 
avow themselves to be lawless, which profess to transcend the field of 
law. We say, life and conduct shall stand for usivholly on a basis 
of law, and must rest entirely in that region of science (not physi- 
cal, but moral and social science) , where we are free to use our in- 
telligence in the methods known to us as intelligible logic, methods 
which the intellect can analyze. When you confront us with hypoth- 
eses, however sublime and however affecting, if they cannot be 
stated in terms of the rest of our knowledge, if they are disparate 
to that world of sequence and sensation which to us is the ulti- 
mate base of all our real knowledge, then we shake our heads and 
tmn aside." 

Fbbdebic Habbison. 



INTRODUCTION. 

'* Ethical science is already forever completed, so 
far as her general outline and main principles are con- 
cerned, and has been, as it were, waiting for physical 
science to come up with her."— Paradoxical Philosophy. 



Natural Law is a new word. It is the last 
and the most magnificent discovery of science. 
No more telling proof is open to the modern world 
of the greatness of the idea than the greatness of 
the attempts which have always been made to 
justify it. In the earlier centuries, before the 
birth of science, Phenomena were studied alone. 
The world then was a chaos, a collection of single, 
isolated, and independent facts. Deeper thinkers 
saw, indeed, that relations must subsist between 
these facts, but the Reign of Law was never more 
to the ancients than a far-off vision. Their pbil- 
osophies, conspicuously those of the Stoics and 
Pythagoreans, heroically sought to marshal the 
discrete materials of the universe into thinkable 
form, but from these artificial and fantastic sys- 
tems nothing remains to us now but an ancient 
testimony to the grandeur of that harmony which 
they failed to reach. 

With Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler the first 

(3) 



INTRODUCTION. 



regular lines of the universe began to be dis- 
cerned. When Nature yielded to Newton her 
great secret, Gravitation was felt to be not greater 
as a fact in itself than as a revelation that Law 
was fact. And thenceforth the search for indi- 
vidual Phenomena gave way before the larger 
study of their relations. The pursuit of Law be- 
came the passion of science. 

What that discovery of Law has done for Na- 
ture, it is impossible to estimate. As a mere 
spectacle the universe to-day discloses a beauty so 
transcendent that he who disciplines himself by 
scientific work finds it an overwhelming reward 
simply to behold it. In these Laws one stands 
face to face with truth, solid and unchangeable. 
Each single Law is an instrument of scientific re- 
search, simple in its adjustments, universal in its 
application, infallible in its results. And despite 
the limitations of its sphere on every side Law is 
still the largest, richest, and surest source of hu- 
man knowledge. 

It is not necessary for the present to more than 
lightly touch on definitions of Natural Law. The 
Duke of Argyll ^ indicates five senses in which the 
word is used, but we may content ourselves here 
by taking it in its most simple and obvious sig- 
^nificance. The fundamental conception of Law 
is an ascertained working sequence or constant 
order among the Phenomena of Nature. This 
impression of Law as order it is important to re- 
ceive in its simplicity, for the idea is often cor- 
i " Eeign of Law," cbap. ii. 



INTRO D UCTION. 



rupted by having attached to it erroneous views 
of cause and effect. In its true sense Natural 
Law predicates nothing of causes. The Laws of 
Nature are simply statements of the orderly con- 
dition of things in Nature, what is found in Na- 
ture by a sufficient number of competent ob« 
servers. What these Laws are in themselves is 
not agreed. That they have any absolute exist- 
ence, even, is far from certain. They are relative 
to man in his many limitations, and represent for 
him the constant expression of what he may al- 
ways expect to find in the world around him. 
But that they have any causal connection with 
the tilings around him is not to be conceived. 
The Natural Laws originate nothing, sustain noth- 
ing ; they are merely responsible for uniformity 
in sustaining what has been originated and what 
is being sustained. They are modes of operation, 
therefore, not operators; processes, not powers. 
The Law of Gravitation, for instance, speaks to 
science only of process. It has no light to offer as 
to itself. Newton did not discover Gravity — that 
is not discovered yet. He discovered its Law 
which is, Gravitation, but that tells us nothing of 
its origin, of its nature, or of its cause. 

The Natural Laws, then, are great lines running 
not only through the world, but, as we now know, 
through the universe, reducing it like parallels of 
latitude to intelligent order. In themselves, be 
it once more repeated, they may have no more 
absolute existence than parallels of latitude. 

But they exist for us. They are drawn for us 



IN TROD UCTION. 



to understand the part by some Hand that drew 
the whole ; so drawn, perhaps, that, understand- 
ing the part, we too in time may learn to under- 
stand the whole. Now the inquiry we propose 
to ourselves resolves itself into the simple ques- 
tion. Do these lines stop with what we call the 
Natural sphere ? Is it not possible that they may 
lead further? Is it probable that the Hand which 
ruled them gave up the work where most of all 
they were required ? Did that Hand divide the 
world into two, a cosmos and a chaos, the higher 
being the chaos? With Nature as the symbol of 
all of harmony and beauty that is known to man, 
must we still talk of the supernatural, not as a 
convenient word, but as a different order of world, 
an unintelligible world, where the Reign of Mys- 
tery supersedes the Reign of Law ? 

This question, let it be carefully observed, ap- 
plies to Laws not to Phenomena. That the Phe- 
nomena of the Spiritual World are in analogy 
with the Phenomena of the Natural World re- 
quires no restatement. Since Plato enunciated 
his doctrine of the Cave or of the twice -divided 
line ; since Christ spake in parables; since Ploti- 
nus wrote of the world as an imaged image ; 
since the mysticism of Swedenborg ; since Bacon 
and Pascal ; since " Sartor Resartus " and " In 
Memoriam," it has been all but a commonplace 
with thinkers that " the invisible things of God 
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, 
being understood by the things that are made.'* 
Milton's question — 



INTRODUCTION. 



"What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to other like more than on earth is thought ? '* 

is now superfluous. "In our doctrine of repre* 
sentations and correspondences," sajs Sweden* 
borg, " we shall treat of both these symbolical and 
typical resemblances, and of the astonishing things 
that occur, I will not say in the living body only,, 
but throughout Nature, and which correspond so 
entirely to supreme and spiritual things, that one 
would swear that the physical world was purely 
symbolical of the spiritual world." ^ And Car- 
lyle : " All visible things are emblems. What thou 
seest is not there on its own account; strictly 
speaking is not there at all. Matter exists only 
spiritually, and to represent some idea and body 
it forth." 2 

But the analogies of Law are a totally different 
thing from the analogies of Phenomena and have 
a very different value. To say generally, with 
Pascal, that " La nature est une image de la grace," 
is merely to be poetical. The function of Her- 
vey's "Meditations in a Flower Garden," or, 
Flavel's "Husbandry Spiritualized," is mainly 
homiletical. That such works have an interest is 
not to be denied. The place of parable in teach- 
ing, and especially after the sanction of the great- 
est of Teachers, must always be recognized. The 
very necessities of language indeed demand this 
method of presenting truth. The temporal is the 

' "Animal Kingdom." 

2 "Sartor Eesartus." 1858 ed., p. 43. 



INTRODUCTION. 



husk and framework of the eternal, and thoughts 
can be uttered only through things.^ 

But analogies between Phenomena bear the 
same relation to analogies of Law that Phenomena 
themselves bear to Law. The light of Law on 
truth, as we have seen, is an immense advance 
upon the light of Phenomena. The discovery of 
Law is simply the discovery of Science. And if 
the analogies of Natural Law can be extended to 
the Spiritual World, that whole region at once 
falls within the domain of science and secures a 
basis as well as an illumination in the constitu- 
tion and course of Nature. All, therefore, that 
has been claimed for parable can be predicated U 
fortiori of this — with the addition that a proof on 

' Even parable, however, has alwa3'S been considered 
to have attached to it a measure of evidential as well as 
of illustrative value. Thus: "The parable or other 
analogy to spiritual truth appropriated from the world 
of nature or man, is not merely illustrative, but also in 
some sort proof. It is not merely that these analogies 
assist to make the truth intelligible or, if intelli- 
gible before, present it more vividly to the mind, 
which is all that some will allow them. Their power 
lies deeper than this, in the harmony unconsciously felt 
\by all men, and which all deeper minds have delighted 
to trace, between the natural and spiritual worlds, so 
that analogies from the first are felt to be something 
more than illustrations happily but yet arbitrarily 
chosen. They are arguments, and may be alleged as 
witnesses; the world of nature being throughout a 
witness for the world of spirit, proceeding from the 
same hand, growing out of the same root, and being 
constituted for that very end."— (Archbishop Trench: 
"Parables," pp. 12, 13.) 



INTRO D UCTION, 



the basis of Law would want no criterion pos- 
sessed by the most advanced science. 

That the validity of analogy generally has been 
seriously questioned one must frankly own. 
Doubtless there is much difficulty and even lia- 
bility to gross error in attempting to establish 
analogy in specific cases. The value of the like- 
ness appears differently to different minds, and in 
discussing an individual instance questions of rel- 
evancy will invariably crop up. Of course, in 
the language of John Stuart Mill, " when the an- 
alogy can be proved, the argument founded upon 
it cannot be resisted." ^ But so great is the diffi- 
culty of proof that many are compelled to attach 
the most inferior weight to analogy as a method 
of reasoning. " Analogical evidence is generally 
more successful in silencing objections than in 
evincing truth. Though it rarely refutes it fre- 
quently repels refutation ; like those weapons 
which though they cannot kill the enemy, will 
ward his blows. ... It must be allowed that 
analogical evidence is at least but a feeble support, 
and is hardly ever honored with the name of 
proof.^'^ Other authorities, on the other hand, 
such as Sir William Hamilton, admit analogy to 
a primary place in logic and regard it as the very 
basis of induction. 

But, fortunately, we are spared all discussion 
on this worn subject, for two cogent reasons. 
For one thing, we do not demand of Nature di- 

1 Mill's ** Logic," vol. ii. p. 96. 

* Campbell's "Ehetoric," vol. i. p. 114, 



lO INTRODUCTION. 

rectly to prove Religion. That was never its 
function. Its function is to interpret. And this, 
after all, is possibly the most fruitful proof. The 
best proof of a thing is that we ^ee it ; if we do 
not see it, perhaps proof will not convince us of it. 
It is the want of the discerning faculty, the clair- 
voyant power of seeing the eternal in the tem- 
poral, rather than the failure of the reason, that 
begets the sceptic. But secondly, and more par- 
ticularly, a significant circumstance has to be 
taken into account, which, though it will appear 
more clearly afterward, may be stated here at 
once. The position we have been led to take up 
is not that the Spiritual Laws are analogous to 
the Natural Laws, but that they are the same Laws. 
It is not a question of analogy but of Identity, 
The Natural Laws are not the shadows or images 
of the Spiritual in the same sense as autumn is 
emblematical of Decay, or the falling leaf of Death. 
The Natural Laws, as the Law of Continuity 
might well warn us, do not stop with the visible 
and then give place to a new set of Laws bearing 
a strong similitude to them. The Laws of the in- 
visible are the same Laws, projections of the nat- 
ural not supernatural. Analogous Phenomena 
are not the fruit of parallel Laws, but of the same 
Laws — Laws which at one end, as it were, may 
be dealing with Matter, at the other end with 
Spirit. As there will be some inconvenience, 
however, in dispensing with the word analogy, we 
shall continue occasionally to employ it. Those 



INTRO D UCTION, 1 1 



who apprehend the real relation will mentally 
substitute the larger term. 

Let us now look for a moment at the present 
state of the question. Can it be said that the 
Laws of the Spiritual World are in any sense 
considered even to have analogies with the Natural 
World? Here and there certainly one finds an 
attempt, and a successful attempt, to exhibit on a 
rational basis one or two of the great Moral Prin- 
ciples of the Spiritual World. But the Physical 
World has not been appealed to. Its magnificent 
system of Laws remains outside, and its contribu- 
tion meanwhile is either silently ignored or pur- 
posely set aside. The Physical, it is said, is too 
remote from the Spiritual. The Moral World 
may afford a basis for religious truth, but even 
this is often the baldest concession ; while the ap- 
peal to the Physical universe is everywhere dis- 
missed as, on the face of it, irrelevant and un- 
fruitful. From the scientific side, again, nothing 
has been done to court a closer fellowship. 
Science has taken theology at its own estimate. 
It is a thing apart. The Spiritual World is not 
only a different world, but a different kind of 
world, a world arranged on a totally different 
principle, under a different governmental scheme. 

The reign of Law has gradually crept into 
every department of Nature, transforming knowl- 
edge everywhere into Science. The process goes 
on, and Nature slowly appears to us as one great 
unity, until the borders of the Spiritual World are 
reached. There the Law of Continuity ceases, 



1 2 INTRO D UCTION. 

and the harmony breaks down. And men who 
have learned their elementary lessons truly from 
the alphabet of the lower Laws, going on to seek 
a higher knowledge, are suddenly confronted with 
the Great Exception. 

Even those who have examined most carefully 
the relations of the Natural and the Spiritual, 
seem to have committed themselves deliberately 
to a final separation in matters of Law. It is a 
surprise to find such a writer as Horace Bushnell, 
for instance, describing the Spiritual world as 
"another system of nature incommunicably sep- 
arate from ours," and further defining it thus : 
" God has, in fact, erected another and higher 
system, that of spiritual being and government 
for which nature exists ; a system not under the 
law of cause and effect, but ruled and marshalled 
under othei' kinds of laws." ^ Few men have 
shown more insight than Bushnell in illustrating 
Spiritual truth from the Natural World ; but he 
has not only failed to perceive the analogy with 
regard to Law, but emphatically denies it. 

In the recent literature of this whole region 
there nowhere seems any advance upon the posi- 
tion of " Nature and the Supernatural." All are 
agreed in speaking of Nature and the Supernat- 
ural. Nature in the Supernatural, so far as Laws 
are concerned, is still an unknown truth. 

''The Scientific Basis of Faith " is a suggestive 
titlec The accomplished author announces that 

>** Nature and the Supernatural," p. 19. 



IN TROD UCTION. 1 3 

the object of his investigation is to show that " the 
world of nature and mind, as made known by 
science, constitute a basis and a preparation foi? 
that highest moral and spiritual life of man, 
which is evoked by the self-revelation of God."^ 
On the whole, Mr. Mnrphy seems to be more 
philosophical and more profound in his view of the 
relation of science and religion than any writer of 
modern times. His conception of religion is broad 
and lofty, his acquaintance with science adequate. 
He makes constant, admirable, and often original 
use of analogy ; and yet, in spite of the promise 
of this quotation, he has failed to find an}^ analogy 
in that department of Law where surely, of all 
others, it might most reasonably be looked for. 
In the broad subject even of the analogies of what 
he defines as " evangelical religion " with Nature, 
Mr. Murphy discovers nothing. Nor can this be 
traced either to short-sight or over-sight. The sub- 
ject occurs to him more than once, and he deliber- 
ately dismisses it — dismisses it not merely as un- 
fruitful, but with a distinct denial of its relevancyo 
The memorable paragraph from Origen which 
forms the text of Butler's "Analogy," he calls 
*' this shallow and false saying." ^ He says : " The 
designation of Butler's scheme of religious philos- 
ophy ought then to be the analogy of religion^ 
legal and evangelical^ to the constitution of nature. 
But does this give altogether a true meaning ? 

1 " The Scientific Basis of Faith." By J. J. Murphy, 
p. 466. 
^ Ov. cit., p. 333. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

Does this double analogy really 3xist ? If justice 
is natural law among beings having a moral 
nature, there is the closest analog}^ between the 
constitution of nature and merely legal religion. 
Legal religion is only the extension of natural 
justice into a future life. . . . But is this true of 
evangelical religion ? Have the doctrines of 
Divine grace any similar support in the analogies 
of nature? I trow not."^ And with reference to 
a specific question, speaking of immortality, he 
asserts that " the analogies of mere nature are 
opposed to the doctrine of immortality."^ 

With regard to Butler's great work in this de- 
partment, it is needless at this time of day to 
point out that his aims did not lie exactly in this 
direction. He did not seek to indicate analogies 
between religion and the constitution and course of 
Nature. His theme was, " The Analogy of Reli- 
gion to the constitution and course of Nature." 
And although he pointed out direct analogies of 
Phenomena, such as those between the meta- 
morphoses of insects and the doctrine of a future 
state ; and although he showed that '' the natural 
and moral constitution and government of the 
world are so connected as to make up together 
but one scheme,"^ his real intention was not so 
much to construct arguments as to repel objec- 
tions. His emphasis accordingly was laid upon 
the difficulties of the two schemes rather than on 
their positive lines ; and so thoionghly has he 
made out his point, that as is well knowi:, the 
» Ibid,, p. 333. 2 Ibid., p. 331, " Analogy, '= chap. vU, 



INTRODUCTION. 1$ 

effect upon many has been, not to lead them 
to accept the Spiritual World on the ground 
of the Natural, bu*t to make them despair of 
both. Butler lived at a time when defence was 
more necessary than construction, when the 
materials for construction were scarce and in- 
secure, and when, besides, some of the things to 
be defended were quite incapable of defence. 
Notwithstanding this, his influence over the 
whole field since has been unparalleled. 

After all, then, the Spiritual World, as it ap- 
pears at this moment, is outside Natural Law. 
Theology continues to be considered, as it has 
always been, a thing apart. It remains still a stu- 
pendous and splendid construction, but on lines 
altogether its own. Nor is Theology to be blamed 
for this. Nature has been long in speaking ; even 
yet its voice is low, sometimes inaudible. Science 
is the true defaulter, for Theology had to wait 
patiently for its development. As the highest of 
the sciences, Theology in the order of evolution 
should be the last to fall into rank. It is reserved 
for it to perfect the final harmony. Still, if it 
continues longer to remain a thing apart, with in- 
creasing reason will be such protests as this of the 
'' Unseen Universe," when, in speaking of a view 
of miracles held by an older Theology, it declares; 
. — ** If he submits to be guided by such interpret 
fcers, each intelligent being will forever continue 
to be baffled in any attempt to explain these phe- 
nomena, because they are said to have no physical 
relation to anything that went before or that 



I6 INTRODUCTION. 

followed after ; in fine, they are made to form a 
universe within a universe, , a portion cut off by 
an insurmountable barrier from the domain of 
scientific inquiry." ^ 

This is the secret of the present decadence of 
Religion in the world of Science. For Science 
can hear nothing of a Great Exception. Con- 
structions on unique lines, " portions cut off by 
an insurmountable barrier from the domain of 
scientific inquiry," it dare not recognize. Nature 
has taught it this lesson, and Nature is right. It 
is the province of Science to vindicate Nature 
here at any hazard. But in blaming Theology for 
its intolerance, it has been betrayed into an in- 
"tolerance less excusable. It has pronounced upon 
it too soon. What if Religion be yet brought 
within the sphere of Law ? Law is the revelation 
of time. One b}^ one, slowly through the cen- 
turies, the Sciences have crystallized into geomet- 
rical form, each form not only perfect in itself, 
but perfect in its relation to all other forms. 
Many forms had to be perfected before the form 
of the 'Spiritual. The Inorganic has to be worked 
out before the Organic, the Natural before the 
Spiritual. Theology at present has merely an 
ancient and provisional philosophic form. By- 
and-by it will be seen whether it be not suscep- 
tible of another. For Theology must pass through 
the necessary stages of progress, like any other 
science. The method of science-making is now 
fully established. In almost all cases the natural 
' ** Unseen Universe," 6th ed., pp. 89, 90. 



INTRODUCTION. 1/ 

history and development are the same. Take, for 
example, the case of Geology. A century ago 
there was none. Science went out to look for it, 
and brought back a Geology which, if Nature were 
a harmony, had falsehood written almost on its face. 
It was the Geology of Catastrophism, a Geology^ 
so out of line with Nature as revealed by the 
other sciences, that on a przon grounds a thought- 
ful mind might have been justified in dismissing it 
as a final form of any science. And its fallacy was 
soon and thoroughly exposed. The advent of 
modified uniform itarian principles all but banished 
the word catastrophe from science, and marked 
the birth of Geology as we know it now. Geol- 
ogy, that is to say, had fallen at last into the 
great scheme of Law. Religious doctrines, manj^ 
of them at least, have been up to this time all but 
as catastrophic as the old Geology. They are not 
on the lines of Nature as we have learned to de- 
cipher her. If any one feels, as Science complains 
that it feels, that the lie of things in the Spiritual 
World as arranged by Theology is not in harmony 
with the world around, is not, in short, scientific, 
he is entitled to raise the question whether this 
be really the final form of those departments of 
Theology to which his complaint refers. He is 
justified, moreover, in demanding a new investiga- 
tion with all modern methods and resources ; and 
Science is bound by its principles not less than by 
the lessons of its own past, to suspend judgment 
till the last attempt is made. The success of 
such an attempt will be looked forward to with 
2 



l8 INTRODUCTION. 

hopefulness or fearfalness just in proportion to 
one's confidence in Nature — in proportion to one's 
belief in the divinity of man and in the divinity 
of things. If there is any truth in the unity of 
Nature, in that supreme principle of Continuity 
, which is growing in splendor with every discovery 
of science, the conclusion is foregone. If there ig 
any foundation for Theology, if the phenomena 
of the Spiritual World are real, in the nature of 
things they ought to come into the sphere of Law. 
Such is at once the demand of Science upon Reli- 
gion and the prophecy that it can and shall be 
fulfilled. 

The Botany of Linnaeus, a purely artificial 
system, Avas a splendid contribution to human 
knowledge, and did more in its day to enlarge the 
view of the vegetable kingdom than all that had 
gone before. But all artificial systems must pass 
away. None knew better than the great Swedish 
naturalist himself that his s}' stem, being artificial, 
was but provisional. Nature must be read in its 
own light. And as the botanical field became 
more luminous, the system of Jussieu and De 
Candolle slowly emerged as a native growth, un- 
folded itself as naturally as the petals of one of 
its own flowers, and forcing itself upon men's in« 
telligence as the very voice of Nature, banished 
the Linnsean system forever. It were unjust to 
say that the present Theology is as artificial as 
"'"iie system of Linnaeus ; in many particulars it 
wants but a fresh expression to make it in the 
most modern sense scientific. But if it has a basis 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

in the constitution and course of Nature, that 
basis has never been adequately shown. It has de- 
pended on Authority rather than on Law ; and a 
new basis must be sought and found if it is to be 
presented to those with whom Law alone is Au- 
thority. 

It is not of course to be inferred that the scien* 
tific method will ever abolish the radical distinc- 
tions of the Spiritual World. True science pro- 
poses to itself no such general leveling in any de- 
partment. Within the " unity of the whole there 
must always be room for the characteristic differ- 
ences of the parts, and those tendencies of thought 
at the present time which ignore such distinctions, 
in their zeal for simplicity really create confusion. 
As has been well said by Mr. Hutton : " Any at- 
tempt to merge the distinctive characteristic of a 
higher science in a lower — of chemical changes in 
mechanical — of physiological in chemical — above 
all, of mental changes in physiological — is a neg- 
lect of the radical assumption of all science, be- 
cause it is an attempt to deduce representations — 
or rather misrepresentations — of one kind of phe- 
nomenon from a conception of another kind which 
does not contain it, and must have it implicitly 
and illicitly smuggled in before it can be extracted 
out of it. Hence, instead of increasing our means 
of representing the universe to ourselves withoufe 
the detailed examination of particulars, such a 
procedure leads to misconstructions of fact on the 
basis of an imported theory, and generally ends iu 



20 INTRODUCTION, 

forcibly perverting the least-known science to the 
type of the better known." ^ 

What is wanted is simply a unity of conception, 
but not such a unity of conception as should be 
founded on an absolute identity of phenomena. 
This latter might indeed be a unity, but it would 
yoe a very tame one. The perfection of unity is 
'attained where there is infinite variety of phe- 
nomena, infinite complexity of relation, but great 
simplicity of Law. Science will be complete 
when all known phenomena can be arranged in 
one vast circle in which a few well known Laws 
shall form the radii — these radii at once separat- 
ing and uniting, separating into particular groups, 
yet uniting all to a common centre. To show 
that the radii for some of the most characteristic 
phenomena of the Spiritual World are already 
drawn within that circle by science is the main 
object of the papers which follow. There will be 
found an attempt to re-state a few of the more 
elementary facts of the Spiritual Life in terms of 
Biology Any argument for Natural Law in the 
Spiritual World may be best tested in the a pos- 
teriori form. And although the succeeding pages 
are not designed in the first instance to prove a 
principle, they may yet be entered here as evi- 
dence. The practical test is a severe one, but on 
that account all the more satisfactory. 

And what will be gained if the point be made 
out? Not a few things. For one, as partly indi- 
cated already, the scientific demand of the age 
^ " Essays," vol.— p. 40. 



1 



INTROD UCTION. 2 1 

will be satisfied. That demand is that all that 
concerns life and conduct shall be placed on a 
scientific basis. The only great attempt to meet 
that at present is Positivism. 

But what again is a scientific basis ? What ex- 
actly is this demand of the age ? *' By Science I 
understand," says Huxley, " all knowledge which 
rests upon evidence and reasoning of a like char- 
acter to that which claims our assent to ordinary 
scientific propositions ; and if any one is able to 
make good the assertion that his theology rests 
upon valid evidence and sound reasoning, then it 
appears to me that such theology must take its 
place as a part of science." That the assertion 
has been already made good is claimed by many 
who deserve to be heard on questions of scientific 
evidence. But if more is wanted by some minds, 
more not perhaps of a higher kind but of a differ- 
ent kind, at least the attempt can be made to. 
gratify them. Mr. Frederic Harrison,^ in the name 
of the Positive method of thought, " turns aside 
from ideal standards which avow themselves to 
be lawless [the italics are Mr. Harrison's], which 
profess to transcend the field of law. We say, 
life and conduct shall stand for us wholly on a 
basis of law, and must rest entirely in that region 
of science (not physical, but moral and social 
science) where we are free to use our intelligence, 
in the methods known to us as intelligible logic, 
methods which the intellect can analyze. When 

^"A Modern Symposium."— iVineieeni/i Century ^ vol* 
i. p. 625. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

you confront us with hypotheses, however sublime 
and however affecting, if they cannot be stated in 
terms of the rest of our knowledge, if they are 
disparate to that world of sequence and sensation 
which to us is the ultimate base of all our real 
knowledge, then we shake our heads and turn 
aside." This is a most reasonable demand, and we 
humbly accept the challenge. We think religious 
truth, or at all events certain of the largest facts of 
the Spiritual Life, can be stated " in terms of the 
rest of our knowledge." 

We do not sa}^, as already hinted, that the pro- 
posal includes an attempt to prove the existence 
of the Spiritual World. Does that need proof? 
And if so, what sort of evidence would be con- 
sidered in court? The facts of the Spiritual 
World are as real to thousands as the facts of the 
Natural World — and more real to liundreds. 
.But were one asked to prove that the Spiritual 
World can be discerned by the appropriate facul- 
ties, one would do it precisely as one would at- 
tempt to prove the Natural World to be an object 
of recognition to the senses — and with as much or 
as little success. In either instance probably the 
fact would be found incapable of demonstration, 
but not more in the one case than in the other. 
Were one asked to prove the existence of Spirit- 
ual Life, one would also do it exactly as one 
would seek to prove Natural Life. And this, per- 
haps, might be attempted with more hope. But 
this is not on the immediate programme. Science 
deals with known facts ; and accepting certain 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

kDown facts in the Spiritual World we proceed to 
' arrange them, to discover their Laws, to inquire 
if they can be stated " in terms of the rest of our 
knowledge." 

At the same time, although attempting no phil* 
Dsophical proof of the existence of a Spiritual Life 
and sk Spiritual World, we are not without hope 
that the general line of thought here may be use- 
ful to some who are honestly inquiring in these 
directions. The stumbliug-block to most minds 
is perhaps less the mere existence of the unseen 
than the want of definition, the apparently hope- 
less vagueness, and not least, the delight in this 
vagueness as mere vagueness by some who look 
upon this as the mark of quality in Spiritual 
things. It will be at least something to tell 
■ earnest seekers that the Spiritual World is not a 
castle in the air, of an architecture unknown to 
earth or heaven, but a fair ordered realm furnished 
with many familiar things and ruled by well-re- 
membered Laws. 

It is scarcely necessary to emphasize under a 
second head the gain in clearness. The Spiritual 
World as it stands is full of perplexity. One can 
escape doubt only by escaping thought. • With 
regard to many important articles of religion, per* 
haps the best and the wor.^.t course at present open 
to a doubter is simple credulity. Who is to an^ 
swer for this state of things ? It comes as a neces- 
sary tax for improvement on the age in which we 
live. The old ground of faith. Authority, is given 
up ; the new, Science, has not yet taken its place. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

Men did not require to see truth before ; they only, 
needed to believe it. Truth, therefore, had not 
been put by Theology in a seeing form — which, 
however, was its original form. But now they 
ask to see it. And when it is shown them they 
start back in despair. We shall not say what 
they see. But we shall say what they might see. 
If the Natural Laws were run through the Spirit- 
ual World, they might see the great lines of relig- 
ious truth as clearly and simply as the broad lines 
of science. As they gazed into that Natural-Spir- 
itual World they would say to themselves, '' We 
have seen something like this before. This order 
is known to us. It is not arbitrary. This Law 
here is that old Law there, and this Phenomenon 
here, v^^hat can it be but that which stood in pre- 
cisely the same relation to that Law yonder?'* 
And so gradually from the new form everything 
assumes new meaning. So the Spiritual World 
becomes slowly Natural ; and, what is of all but 
equal moment, the Natural World becomes slowly 
Spiritual. Nature is not a mere image or emblem 
of the Spiritual. It is a working model of the 
Spiritual. In the Spiritual World the same 
wheels revolve — but without the iron. The same 
figures flit across the stage, the same processes of 
grow^th go on, the same functions are discharged, 
the same biological laws prevail — only with a dif- 
ferent quality of fiio^. Plato's prisoner, if not 
out of the Cave, has at least his face to the light* 

*' The earth is eram'd with heaven. 
And every common bush afire with God." 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

How much of the Spiritual World is covered 
by Natural law we do not propose at present to 
inquire. It is certain, at least, that the whole is 
not covered. And nothing more lends confidence 
to the method than this. For one thing, room is 
still left for mystery. Had no place remained for 
mystery it had proved itself both unscientific and 
irreligious. A Science without mystery is un- 
known ; a Religion without mystery is absurd. 
This is no attempt to reduce Religion to a ques- 
tion of mathematics, or demonstrate God in bio- 
logical formulse. The elimination of mystery 
from the universe is the elimination of Religion. 
However far the scientific method may penetrate 
the Spiritual World, there will always remain a 
region to be explored by a scientific faith. "I 
shall never rise to the point of view which wishes 
to ' raise ' faith to knowledge. To me, the way 
of truth is to come through the knowledge of my 
ignorance to the submissiveness of faith, and then, 
making that my starting place, to raise my knowl- 
edge into faith." ^ 

Lest this proclamation of mystery should seem 
alarming, let us add that this mystery also is sci- 
entific. The one subject on which all scientific 
men are agreed, the one theme on which all alike 
become eloquent, the one strain of pathos in all 
their writing and speaking and thinking, concerns 
that final uncertainty, that utter blackness of dark- 
ness bounding their work on every side. If the 

»Beck: "Bib. Psychol.," Clark's Tr., Pret, 2d Ed. 
p. xiii. 



26 INTRODUCTION. 



light of Nature is to illuminate for us the Spiritual 
Sphere, there may well be a black Unknown, cor- 
responding, at least at some points, to this zone of 
darkness round the Natural World. 

But the final gain would appear in the depart- 
ment of Theology. The establishment of the 
Spiritual Laws on *'the solid ground of Nature," 
to which the mind trusts " which builds for aye," 
would offer a new basis for certainty in Religion. 
It has been indicated that the authority of Au- 
thority is waning. This is a plain fact. Audit 
was inevitable. Authority — man's Authority, 
that is — is for children. And there necessarily 
comes a time when they add to the question, 
What shall I do ? or. What shall I believe ? the 
adult's interrogation — Why? Now this question 
is sacred, and must be answered. 

" How truly its central position is impregna- 
ble," Herbert Spencer has well discerned, *' relig- 
ion has never adequately realized. In the devout- 
est faith, as we habitually see it, there lies hidden 
an innermost core of scepticism ; and it is this 
scepticism which causes that dread of inquiry dis- 
played by religion when face to face with science." ^ 
True indeed ; Religion has never realized how im- 
pregnable are many of its positions. It has not 
yet been placed on that basis which would make 
them impregnable. And in a transition period like 
the present, holding A uthoritjMvith one hand, the 
other feeling all around in the darkness for some 
strong new support. Theology is surely to be pitied' 
' " First. PriDcioles," p. 161. 



INTRODUCTION. 2/ 

Whence this dread when brought face to face 
with Science? It cannoc be dread of scientific 
fact. No single fact in Science has ever discred- 
ited a fact in Religion. The theologian knows 
that, and admits that he has no fear of facts. 
What then has Science done to make Theology- 
tremble ■? It is its method. It is its system. It 
is its Reign of Law. It is its harmony and con- 
tinuity. The attack is not specific. No one point 
is assailed. It is the whole system which, when 
compared with the other and wtigit^c^d in its bal- 
ance, is found wanting. An eye winch has looked 
at the first cannot look upon this. To do that, 
and rest in the contemplation, it has first to un- 
century itself. 

Herbert Spencer points out further, with how 
much truth need not now be discussed, that the 
purification of Religion has always come from 
Science. It is very apparent at all events that an 
immense debt must soon be contracted. The 
shifting of the furnishings will be a work of 
time. But it must be accomplished. And not the 
least result of the process will be the effect upon 
Science itself. No department of knowledge 
ever contributes to another without receiving its 
own again with usury — witness the reciprocal 
favors of Biology and Sociology. From the time 
that Comte defined the analogy between the phe- 
nomena exhibited by aggregations of associated 
men and those of animal colonies, the Science of 
Life and the Science of Society have been so con- 
tributing to one another that their progress sinoQ 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

has been all but hand-in-hand. A conception 
borrowed by the one has been observed in time 
finding its way back, and always in an enlarged 
form, to further illuminate and enrich the field it 
left. So must it be with' Science and Religion. 
If the purification of Religion comes from Science, 
tlie purification of Science, in a deeper sense, shall 
come from Religion. The true ministry of Na- 
ture must at last be honored, and Science "take 
its place as the great expositor. To Men of 
Science, not less than to Theologians, 

** Science then 
Shall be a precious visitant ; and then. 
And only then, be worthy of her name; 
For then her heart shall kindle, her dull eye. 
Dull and inanimate, no more shall hang 
Chained to its object in brute slavery : 
But taught with patient interest to watch 
The process of things, and serve the cause 
Of order and distinctness, not for this 
Shall it forget that its most noble use. 
Its most illustiious province, must be found 
In furnishing clear guidance, a support, 
Not treacherous, to the mind's excursive power." * 

But the gift of Science to Theology shall be not 
less rich. With the inspiration of Nature to illu- 
minate what the inspiration of Revelation has left 
obscure, heresy in certain whole departments shall 
become impossible. With the demonstration of 
the naturalness of the supernatural, scepticism 
even may come to be regarded as unscientific. 
A.nd those who have wrestled long for a few bare 
' Wordsworth's Excursion, Book iv. 



INTRODUCTION. 29 



truths to ennoble life and rest their souls in think- 
ing of the future will not be left in doubt. 

It is impossible to believe that the amazing suc- 
cession of revelations in the domain of Nature 
during the last few centuries, at which the world 
has all but grown tired wondering, are to yield 
nothing for the higher life. If the development 
of doctrine is to have any meaning for the future, 
Theology must draw upon the further revelation 
of the seen for the further revelation of the un- 
seen. It need, and can, add nothing to fact; 
but as the vision of Newton rested on a clearer 
and richer world than that of Plato, so, though, 
seeing the same things in the Spiritual World at- 
our fathers, we may see them clearer and richer, 
With the work of the centuries upon it, tht 
mental eye is a finer instrument, and demands a 
more ordered world. Had the revelation of Law 
been given sooner, it had been unintelligible. 
Revelation never volunteers anything that man 
could discover for himself — on the principle, prob- 
ably, that it is only when he is capable of discov- 
ering it that he is capable of appreciating it. Be- 
sides, children do not need Laws, except Laws in 
the sense of commandments. They repose with 
simplicity on authority, and ask no questions. 
But there comes a time, as the world reaches its 
manhood, when they will ask questions, and stake, 
moreover, everything on the answers. That time 
is now. Hence we must exhibit our doctrines, 
not lying athwart the lines of the world's think- 
ing, in a place reserved, and therefore shunned, 



30 INTRODUCTION. 



for the Great Exception ; but in their kinship to 
all truth and in their Law-relation to the whole of 
Nature. This is, indeed, simply following out 
the system of teaching begun by Christ Himself. 
And what is the search for spiritual truth in the 
Laws of Nature but an attempt to utter the para- 
bles which have been hid so long in the world 
around without a preacher, and to tell men once 
more that the Kingdom of Heaven is liko' unto 
this and to that? 



PART n. 

The Law of Continuity having been referred 
to already as a prominent factor in this inquir}', it 
may not be out of place to sustain the plea for 
Natural Law in the Spiritual Sphere by a brief 
statement and application of this great principle. 
The Law of Continuity furnishes an a priori 
argument for the position we are attempting to 
establish of the most convincing kind — of such a 
kind, indeed, as to seem to our mind final. Briefly 
indicated, the ground taken up is this, that if 
Nature be a harmony, Man in all his relations — 
physical, mental, moral, and spiritual — falls to be 
included within its circle. It is altogether un- 
likely that man spiritual should be violently 
separated in all the conditions of growth, develop- 
ment, and life, from man physical. It is indeed 
difficult to conceive that one set of principles 
should guide the natural life, and these at a certain 
period — the very point where they are needed — 
suddenly give place to another set of principles 
altogether new and unrelated. Nature has never 
taught us to expect such a catastrophe. She has 
nowhere prepared us tor it. And Man cannot in 
the nature of things, in the nature of thought, in 
the nature of language, be separated Into two such 
incoherent halves. 

(31) 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

The spiritual man, it is true, is to be studied in 
a different department of science from the natural 
man. But the harmony established by science is 
not a harmony within specific departments. It is 
the universe that is the harmony, the universe of 
which these are but parts. And the harmonies of 
the parts depend for all their weight and interest 
on the harmony of the whole. While, there- 
fore, there are many harmonies, there is but on» 
harmony. The breaking up of the phenomena of 
the universe into carefully guarded groups, and 
the allocation of certain prominent Laws to each^ 
it must never be forgotten, and however much 
Nature lends herself to it, are artificial. We find 
an evolution in Botany, another in Geology, and 
another in Astronomy, and the effect is to lead 
one insensibly to look upon these as three distinct 
evolutions. But these sciences, of course, are 
mere departments created by ourselves to facili- 
tate knowledge — reductions of Nature to the scale 
of our own intelligence. And we must beware of 
breaking up Nature except for this purpose* 
Science has so dissected everything, that it be- 
comes a mental difficulty to put the puzzle to- 
gether again ; and we must keep ourselves in 
practice by constantly thinking of Nature as a 
whole, if science is not to be spoiled by its own 
refinements. Evolution being found in so many 
different sciences, the likelihood is that it is a uni- 
versal principle. And there is no presumption 
whatever against this Law and many others being 
excluded from the domain of the spiritual life. 



INTRODUCTION, 33 

On the other hand, there are very convincing 
reasons why the Natural Laws should be contin- 
uous through the Spiritual Sphere — not changed 
in any way to meet the new circumstances, but 
continuous as they stand. 

But to the exposition. One of the most strik- 
ing generalizations of recent science is that even 
Laws have their Law. Phenomena first, in the 
progress of knowledge, were grouped together, 
and Nature shortly presented the spectacle of a 
cosmos, the lines of beauty being the great 
Natural Laws. So long, however, as these Laws 
were merely great lines running through Nature, 
so long as they remained isolated from one 
another, the system of Nature was still incom- 
plete. The principle which sought Law among 
phenomena had to go further and seek a Law 
among the Laws. Laws themselves accordingly 
came to be treated as they treated phenomena, 
and found themselves finally grouped in a still 
narrower circle. That inmost circle is governed 
by one great Law, the Law of Continuity. It is 
the Law for Laws. 

It is, perhaps, significant that few exact defini- 
tions of Continuity are to be found. Even in Sir 
W. R. Grove's famous paper,^ the fountain-head 
of the modern form of this far from modern truth, 
there is no attempt at definition. In point of fact, 
its sweep is so magnificent, it appeals so much 
more to the imagination than to the reason, that 

» " The Correlation of Physical Forces/* 6th ed., p. 181 
et seq. 

3 



34 INTRODUCTION, 

men have preferred to exhibit rather than to define 
it. Its true greatness consists in the final impres- 
sion it leaves on the mind with regard to the uni- 
formity of Nature. For it was reserved for the 
Law of Continuity to put the finishing touch to 
the harmony of the universe. 

Probably the most satisfactory way to secure 
for oneself a just appreciation of the Principle of 
Continuity is to try to conceive the universe with- 
out it. The opposite of a continuous universe 
would be a discontinuous universe, an incoherent 
and irrelevant universe — as irrelevant in all its 
ways of doing things as an irrelevant person. In 
effect, to withdraw Continuity from the universe 
would be the same as to withdraw reason from an 
individual. The universe would run deranged; 
the world would be a mad world. 

There used to be a children's book which bore 
the fascinating title of "The Chance World." It 
described a world in which everything happened 
by chance. The sun might rise or it might not; 
or it might appear at any hour, or the moon might 
come up instead. When children were born they 
might have one head or a dozen heads, and those 
heads might not be on their shoulders — there 
might be no shoulders — but arranged about the 
limbs. If one jumped up in the air it was impos- 
sible to predict whether he would ever come down 
again. That he came down yesterday was no 
guarantee that he would do it next time. For 
every day antecedent and consequent varied, and 
gravitation and ever3'^thing else changed from hour 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

to hour. To-day a chilcVs body might be so light 
that it was impossible for it to descend from its 
chair to the floor ; but to-morrow, in attempting 
the experiment again, the impetus might drive it 
through a three-story house and dash it to pieces 
somewhere near the centre of the earth. In this 
chance world cause and effect were abolishedc 
Law was annihilated. And the result to the in- 
habitants of such a world could only be that rea- 
son would be impossible. It would be a lunatic 
world with a population of lunatics. 

Now this is no more than a real picture of what 
the world would be without Law, or the Universe 
without Continuit}^ And hence we come in sight 
of the necessity of some principle or Law accord- 
ing to which Laws shall be, and be " continuous " 
throughout the system. Man as a rational and 
moral being demands a pledge that if he depends 
on Nature for any given result on the ground that 
Nature has previously led him to expect such a 
result, his intellect shall not be insulted, nor his 
confidence in her abused. If he is to trust Na- 
ture, in short, it must be guaranteed to him that 
in doing so he will "never be put to confusion." 
The authors of the Unseen Universe conclude 
their examination of this principle by saying that 
" assuming the existence of a supreme Governor 
of the universe, the Principle of Continuity may 
be said to be the definite ex^^ression in words of 
our trust that He will not put us to permanent 
intellectual confusion, and we can easily conceive 
similar expressions of trust with reference to the 



36 INTRODUCTION. 

other faculties of man." ^ Or, as it has been well 
put elsewhere, " Continuity is the expression of the 
Divine Veracity in Nature." ^ The most striking 
examples of the continuousness of Law, are, per- 
haps, those furnished by Astronomy, especially in 
connection with the more recent applications of 
spectrum analysis. But even in the case of the 
simpler Laws the demonstration is complete. 
There is no reason apart from Continuity to ex- 
pect that gravitation, for instance, should prevail 
outside our world. But wherever matter has been 
detected throughout the entire universe, whether 
in the form of star or planet, comet or meteorite, 
it is found to obey that Law. " If there were no 
other indication of unity than this, it would be 
almost enough. For the unity which is implied in 
the mechanism of the heavens is indeed a unity 
which is all-embracing and complete. The struc- 
ture of our own bodies, with all that depends upon 
it, is a structure governed by, and therefore 
adapted to, the same force of gravitation which 
has determined the form and the movements of 
myriads of worlds. Every part of the human 
organism is fitted to conditions which would all be 
destroyed in a moment if the forces of gravita- 
tion were to change or fail." ^ 

But it is unnecessary to multiply illustrations. 

* "Unseen Universe," Gth ed., p. 88. 

2 " Old Faiths in New Light," by Newman Smith. 
Unwin's English edition, p. 252. 

3 The Duke of Argyll : Contemporary Bevlew, Sept. 
1880, p. 358. 



INTRODUCTION. 37 

Having defined the principle we may proceed 
at once to apply it. And the argument may be 
summed up in a sentence. As the Natural Laws 
are continuous through the universe of matter 
and of space, so will they be continuous through 
the universe of spirit. 

If this be denied, what then ? Those who deny 
it must furnish the disproof. The argument is 
founded on a principle which is now acknowl- 
edged to be universal ; and the on%L% of disproof 
must lie with those who may be bold enough to 
take up the position that a region exists where at 
last the Principle of Continuity fails. To do this 
one would first have to overturn Nature, then 
science, and last, the human mind. 

It may seem an obvious objection that many of 
the Natural Laws have no connection whatever 
with the Spiritual World, and as a matter of fact 
are not continued through it. Gravitation, for in- 
stance — what direct application has that in the 
Spiritual World ? The reply is threefold. First, 
there is no proof that it does not hold there. If 
the spirit be in any sense material it certainly 
must hold. In the second place, gravitation may 
hold for the Spiritual Sphere although it cannot 
be directly proved. The spirit may be armed with 
powers which enable it to rise superior to gravity. 
During the action of these powers gravity need be 
no more suspended than in the case of a plant 
which rises in the air during the process of growth. 
It does this in virtue of a higher Law and in ap^ 
parent defiance of the lower. Thirdly, if the 



38 INTRODUCTION. 

spiritual be not material it still cannot be said that 
gravitation ceases at that point to be continuous. 
It is not gravitation that ceases — it is matter. 

This point, however, will require development 
for another reason. In the case of the plant just 
referred to, there is a principle of growth or vital- 
ity at work superseding the attraction of gravity. 
Why is there no trace of that Law in the In- 
organic world ? Is not this another instance of 
the discontinuousness of Law ? If the Law of 
vitality has so little connection with the Inorganic 
kingdom — less even than gravitation with the 
Spiritual, what becomes of Continuity? Is it 
not evident that each kingdom of Nature has its 
own set of Laws which continue possibly un- 
touched for the specific kingdom but never extend 
beyond it? 

It is quite true that when we pass from the In- 
organic to the Organic, we come upon a new set 
of Laws. But the reason why the lower set do 
not seem to act in the higher sphere is not that 
they are annihilated, but that they are overruled. 
And the reason why the higher Laws are not 
found operating in the lower is not because they 
are not continuous downward, but because there is 
nothing for them there to act upon. It is not Law 
that fails, but opportunity. The biological Laws are 
continuous for life. Wherever there is life, that 
is to say, they will be found acting, just as gravi- 
tation acts wherever there is matter. 

We have purposely, in the last paragraph, in- 
dulged in a fallacy. We have said that the bio- 



INTRODUCTION. 39 

logical Laws would certainly be continuous in the 
lower or mineral sphere were there anything there 
for them to act upon. Now Laws do not 
act upon anything. It has been stated already, 
although apparently it cannot be too abundantly 
emphasized, that Laws are only modes of operation, 
not themselves operators. The accurate state- 
ment, therefore would be that the biological Laws 
would be continuous in the lower sphere were 
there anything there for them, not to act upon, but 
to keep in order. If there is no acting going on, if 
there is nothing being kept in order, the responsi- 
bility does not lie with Continuity. The Law will 
always be at its post, not only when its services 
are required, but wherever they are possible. 

Attention is drawn to this, for it is a correction 
one will find oneself compelled often to make in 
his thinking. It is so difficult to keep out of 
mind the idea of substance in connection with the 
Natural laws, the idea that they are the movers, 
the essences, the energies, that one is constantly on 
the verge of falling into false conclusions. ' Thus 
a hasty glance at the present argument on the part 
of any one ill-furnished enough to confound Law 
with substance or with cause would probably lead 
to its immediate rejection. 

For, to continue the same line of illustration, it 
might next be urged that such a Law as Bio- 
genesis, which, as we hope to show afterward, is 
the fundamental Law of life for both the natural 
and spiritual world, can have no application what- 
soever in the latter sphere. The life with which 



40 INTRODUCTION. 

it deals in the Natural World does not enter at 
all into the Spiritual World, and therefore, it 
might be argued, the Law of Biogenesis cannot 
be capable of extension into it. The Law of Con- 
tinuity seems to be snapped at the point where 
the natural passes into the spiritual. The vital 
principle of the body is a different thing from the 
vital principle of the spiritual life. Biogenesis 
deals with /5c'o?, with the natural life, with cells 
and germs, and as there are no exactly similar 
cells and germs in the Spiritual World, the Law 
cannot therefore apply. All which is as true as if 
one were to say that the fifth proposition of the 
First Book of Euclid applies when the figures are 
drawn with chalk upon the blackboard, but fails 
with regard to structures of wood or stone. 

The proposition is continuous for the whole 
world, and, doubtless, likewise for the sun and 
moon and stars. The same universality may be 
predicated likewise for the Law of life. Wher- 
ever there is life we may expect to find it 
arranged, ordered, governed according to the same 
Law. At the beginning of the natural life we * 
find the Law that natural life can only come from 
pre-existing natural life ; and at the beginning of 
the spiritual life we find that the spiritual life can 
only come from pre-existing spiritual life. But 
there are not tAvo Laws ; there is one — Biogenesis. 
At one end the Law is dealing with matter, at the 
other with sjDirit. The qualitative terms natural 
and spiritual make no difference. Biogenesis is 
U^ Law for all life and for all kinds of life, and 



INTRODUCTION, 4I 

the particular substance with which it is asso- 
ciated is as indifferent to Biogenesis as it is to 
Gravitation. Gravitation will act whether the 
substance be suns and stars, or grains of sand, or 
raindrops. Biogenesis, in like manner, will act 
wherever there is life. 

The conclusion finally is, that from the nature 
of Law in general, and from the scope of the 
Principle of Continuity in particular, the Laws 
of the natural life must be those of the spiritual 
life. This does not exclude, observe, the possi- 
bility of there being new Laws in addition within 
the Spiritual Sphere; nor does it even include 
the supposition that the old Laws will be the con- 
spicuous Laws of the Spiritual World, both which 
points will be dealt with presently. It simply 
asserts that whatever else may be found, these 
must be found there ; that they must be there 
though they may not be seen there ; and that they 
must project beyond there if there be anything 
beyond there. If the Law of Continuity is true, 
the only way to escape the conclusion that the 
Laws of the natural life are the Laws, or at least 
are Laws, of the spiritual life, is to say that there 
is no spiritual life. It is really easier to give up 
the phenomena than to give up the Law. 

Two questions now remain for further consid- 
eration-— one bearing on the possibility of new 
Law in the spiritual ; the other, on the assumed 
invisibility or inconspicuousness of the old Laws 
on account of their subordination to the new. 

Let us begin by conceding that there may be 



42 INTRODUCTION. 

new Laws. The argument might then be ad- 
vanced that since, in Nature generally, we come 
upon new Laws as we pass from lower to higher 
kingdoms, the old still remaining in force, the 
newer Laws which one would expect to meet in 
the Spiritual World would so transcend and over« 
whelm the older as to make the analogy or iden- 
tity, even if traced, of no practical use. The new 
Laws would represent operations and energies so 
different, and so much more elevated, that they 
would afford the true keys to the Spiritual World. 
As Gravitation is practically lost sight of when 
we pass into the domain of life, so Biogenesis 
would be lost sight of as we enter the Spiritual 
Sphere. 

We must first separate in this statement the 
old confusion of Law and energy. Gravitation is 
not lost sight of in the organic world. Gravity 
may be, to a certain extent, but not Gravitation ; 
and gravity only where a higher power counter- 
acts its action. At the same time it is not to be 
denied that the conspicuous thing in Organic Na- 
ture is not the great Inorganic Law. 

But the objection turns upon the statement that 
reasoning from analogy we should expect, in turn, 
to lose sight of Biogenesis as we enter the Spiritual 
Sphere. One answer to which is that, as a matter 
of fact, we do not lose sight of it. So far from 
being invisible, it lies across the very threshold of 
the Spiritual World, and, as we shall see, pervades 
it everywhere. What we lose sight of, to a cer- 
tain extent, is the natural /9{'o^. In the Spiritual 



INTRODUCTION. 43 

World that is not the conspicuous thing, and it is 
obscure there just as gravity becomes obscure in 
the Organic, because something higher, more po- 
tent, more characteristic of the higher plane, comes 
in. That there are higher energies, so to speak, 
in the Spiritual World is, of course, to be affirmed 
alike on the ground of analogy and of experience ; 
but it does not follow that these necessitate other 
Laws. A Law has nothing to do with potency. 
We may lose sight of a substance, or of an energy, 
but it is an abuse of language to talk of losing 
sight of Laws. 

Are there, then, no other Laws in the Spiritual 
World except those which are the projections or 
extensions of Natural Laws ? From the number 
of Natural Laws which are found in the higher 
sphere, from the large territory actually embraced 
by them, and from their special prominence 
throughout the whole region, it may at least be 
answered that the margin left for them is small. 
But if the objection is pressed that it is contrary 
to the analogy, and unreasonable in itself, that 
there should not be new Laws for this higher 
sphere, the reply is obvious. Let these Laws be 
produced. If the spiritual nature, in inception, 
growth, and development, does not follow natural 
principles, let the true principles be stated and 
explained. We have not denied that there may 
be new Laws. One would almost be surprised if 
there were not. The mass of material handed 
over from the natural to the spiritual, continuous, 
apparently, from the natural to the spiritual, is so 
C 



44 INTRODUCTION. 

great that till that is worked out it will be impos- 
sible to say what space is still left unembraced by 
Laws that are known. At present it is impossible 
even approximately to estimate the size of that 
supposed terra incognito. From one point of view 
it ought to be vast, from another extremely small 
But however large the region governed by the sus- 
pected new Laws may be that cannot diminish by 
a hair's-breadth the size of the territory where the 
old Laws still prevail. That territory itself, rela- 
tively to us though perhaps not absolutely, must 
be of great extent. The size of the key which is 
to open it, that is, the size of all the Natural Laws 
which can be found to apply, is a guarantee that 
the region of the knowable in the Spiritual World 
is at least as wide as these regions of the Natural 
World which by the help of these Laws have been 
explored. No doubt also there yet remain some 
Natural Laws to be discovered, and these in time 
may have a further light to shed on the spiritual 
field. Then we may know all that is? By no 
means. We may only know all that may be 
known. And that may be very little. The Sov- 
ereign Will which sways the sceptre of that in- 
visible empire must be granted a right of freedom 
— that freedom which by putting it into our willfj 
He surely teaches us to honor in His. In much 
of His dealing with us also in what may be called 
the paternal relation, there may seem no special 
Law — no Law except the highest of all, that Law 
of which all other Laws are parts, that Law which 
neither Nature can wholly reflect nor the mind 



INTRODUCTION, 45 



begin to fathom — the Law of Love. He 
nothing to that, however, who loses sight of all 
other Laws in that, nor does he take from it who 
finds specific Laws everywhere radiating from it. 

With regard to the supposed new Laws of the 
Spiritual World — those Laws, that is, which are 
found for the first time in the Spiritual World, 
and have no analogies lower down — there is this 
to be said, that there is one strong reason against 
exaggerating either their number or importance— 
their importance, at least, for our immediate needs. 
The connection between language and the Law 
of Continuitj^ has been referred to incidentally al- 
ready. It is clear that we can only express the 
Spiritual Laws in language borrowed, from the 
visible universe. Being dependent for our vocab- 
ulary on images, if an altogether new and foreign 
set of Laws existed in the Spiritual World, they 
could never take shape as definite ideas from mere 
want of words. The hypothetical new Laws 
which may remain to be discovered in the domain 
of Natural or Mental Science may afford some 
index of these hypothetical higher Laws, but this 
would of course mean that the latter were no 
longer foreign but in analogy, or, likelier still, 
identical. If, on the other hand, the Natural 
Laws of the future have nothing to say of 
these higher Laws, what can be said of them? 
Where is the language to come from in which to 
frame them ? If their disclosure could be of any 
practical use to us, we may be sure the clue to 
them, the revelation of them, in some way would 



46 INTRODUCTION. 

have been put into Nature. If, on the contrary, 
they are not to be of immediate use to man, it is 
better they should not embarrass him. After all, 
then, our knowledge of higher Law must be limited 
by our knowledge of the lower. The Natural 
Laws as at present known, whatever additions may 
yet be made to them, give a fair rendering of the 
facts of Nature. And their analogies or then- pro- 
jections in the Spiritual sphere may also be said 
to offer a fair account of that sphere, or of one or 
two conspicuous departments of it. The time has 
come for that account to be given. The greatest 
among the theological Laws are the Laws of 
Nature in disguise. It will be the splendid task 
of the theology of the future to take off the mask 
and disclose to a waning scepticism the naturalness 
of the supernatural. 

It is almost singular that the identification of 
the Laws of the Spiritual World with the Laws 
of Nature should so long have escaped recogni- 
tion. For apart from the probability on a priori 
grounds, it is involved in the whole structure of 
Parable. When any two Phenomena in the two 
spheres are seen to be analogous, the parallelism 
must depend upon the fact that the Laws govern- 
ing them are not analogous but identical. And 
yet this basis for Parable seems to have been over- 
looked. Thus Principal Shairp : — " This seeing 
of Spiritual truths mirrored in the face of Nature 
rests not on any fancied, but in a real analogy be- 
tween the natural and the spiritual worlds. They 
are in some sense which science has not ascertained^ 



INTRODUCTION. 47 

but which the vital and religious imagination can 
perceive, counterparts one of the other." ^ But 
is not this the explanation, that parallel Phenom- 
ena depend upon identical Laws ? It is a ques- 
tion indeed whether one can speak of Laws at all 
as being analogous. Phenomena are parallel, 
Laws which make them so are themselves one. 

In discussing the relations of the Natural and 
Spiritual kingdom, it has been all but implied 
hitherto that the Spiritual Laws were framed 
originally on the plan of the Natural ; and the 
impression one might receive in studying the two 
worlds for the first time from the side of analogy 
would naturally be that the lower world was 
formed first, as a kind of scaffolding on which the 
higher and Spiritual should be afterwards raised. 
Now the exact opposite has been the case. The 
first in the field was the Spiritual World. 

It is not necessary to reproduce here in detail 
the argument which has been stated recently witb 
so much force in the " Unseen Universe." The 
conclusion of that work remains still unassailed,. 
that the visible universe has been developed from 
the unseen. Apart from the general proof from 
the Law of Continuity, the more special grounds; 
of such a conclusion are, first, the fact insisted 
upon by Herschel and Clerk-Maxwell that the 
atoms of which the visible universe is built up 
bear distinct marks of being manufactured arti- 
cles ; and, secondly, the origin in time of the visi- 
ble universe is implied from known facts with r.e- 
^ "Poetic Interpretation of Nature," p. 115. 



48 INTRODUCTION. 

gard to the dissipation of energy. With the 
gradual aggregation of mass the energy of the 
universe has been slowly disappearing, and this 
loss of energy must go on until none remains. 
There is, therefore, a point in time when the 
energy of the universe must come to an end ; and 
that which has its end in time cannot be infinite, 
it must also have had a beginning in time. Hence 
the unseen existed before the seen. 

There is nothing so especially exalted therefore 
in the Natural Laws in themselves as to make one 
anxious to find them blood relations of the Spirit- 
ual. It is not only because these Laws are on the 
ground, more accessible therefore to us who are 
but groundlings ; not only, as the " Unseen Uni- 
verse " points out in another connection, "because 
they are at the bottom of the list — are in fact the 
simplest and lowest — that they are capable of being 
most readily grasped by the finite intelligences 
of the universe." ^ But their true significance 
lies in the fact that they are on the list at all, and 
especially in that the list is the same list. Their 
dignity is not as Natural Laws, but as Spiritual 
Laws, Laws which, as already said, at one end are 
dealing with Matter, and at the other with Spirit. 
*' The physical properties of matter form the al- 
phabet which is put into our hands by God, the 
study of which, if properly conducted, will enable 
us more perfectly to read that great book which 
we call 'Universe.'"^ But, over and above this, 
the Natural Laws will enable us to read that great 
' 6th edition, p. 235. ^ ji^ia., p. 286. 



INTRODUCTION. 49 

duplicate which we call the " Unseen Universe," 
and to think and live in fuller harmony with it. 
After all, the true greatness of Law lies in its 
vision of the Unseen. Law in the visible is the 
Invisible in the visible. And to speak of Laws 
as Natural is to define them in their application 
to a part of the universe, the sense-part, whereas 
a wider survey would lead us to regard all Law as 
essentially Spiritual. To magnify the Laws of Na- 
ture, as Laws of this small world of ours, is to take 
a provincial view of the universe. Law is great ' 
not because the phenomenal world is great, but 
because these vanishing lines are the avenues into 
the eternal Order. '' Is it less reverent to regard 
the universe as an illimitable avenue which leads 
up to God, than to look upon it as a limited area 
bounded by an "impenetrable wall, which, if we 
could only pierce it would admit us at once into 
the presence of the Eternal?"^ Indeed the 
authors of the '' Unseen Universe " demur even to 
the expression material universe^ since, as the}-^ tell 
us " Matter is (though it may seem paradoxical to 
say so) the less important half of the material of 
the physical universe." ^ And even Mr. Huxley, 
though in a different sense, assures us, with Des- 
cartes, " that we know more of mind than we do 
of body; that the immaterial world is a firmer 
reality than the material." ^ 

How the priority of the Spiritual improves the 
(Strength and meaning of the whole argument will 

' " Unseen Universe," p. 96. ^ Ibid., p. 100, 
3 "Science and Culture," p. 259. 

4 



50 INTRODUCTION. 



be b3en at once. The lines of the Spiritual 
existed first, and it was natural to expect that 
when the *' Intelligence resident in the ' Unseen ' " 
proceeded to frame the material universe He 
should go upon the lines already laid down. 
He would, in short, simply project the higher 
Laws downward, so that the Natural World would 
become an incarnation, a visible representation, a 
working model of the spiritual. The whole func- 
tion of the material world lies here." The world is 
only a thing that ib ; it 18 not. It is a thing that 
teaches, yet not even a thing — a show that shows, 
a teaching shadow. However useless the demon- 
stration otherwise, philosophy does well in prov- 
ing that matter is a non -entity. We work with 
it as the mathematician with x. The reality is 
alone the Spiritual. " It is very well for physi- 
cists to speak of 'matter,' but for men generally 
to call this ' a material world ' is an absurdity. 
Should we call it an a;-world it would mean as 
much, viz., that we do not know what it is." ^ 
When shall we learn the true mysticism of one 
who was yet far from being a mystic — '' We look 
not at the things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen ; for the things which are seen 
are temporal, but the things which are not seen 
are eternal ? " ^ The visible is the ladder up to 
the invisible ; the temporal is but the scaffolding 
of the eternal. And when the last immateriai 

' Hinton's "Philosophy and Keligion," p. 40. 
2 2 Cor. iv. 18. 



INTRO D UCTtON. 5 1 

souls have climbed through this material to God, 
the scaffolding shall be taken down, and the earth 
dissolved with fervent heat — not because it was 
base, but because its work is done. 



BIOGENESIS. 



" What we require is no new Bevelation, hut simply an adequate 
eonception of the true essence of Christianity. And I believe that, 
as time goes on, the work of the Holy Spirit mil be continuously 
shown in the gradual insight which the human race will attain into 
the true essence of the Christian religion. I am thus of opinion 
that a standing miracle exists, and thai it has ever existed — a direct 
and continued influence exerted by the supernatural on the natural,^ 
Paeadoxical Philosophy. 



BIOGENESIS. 

•* He that hath the Son hath Life, and he that hath 
not the Son of God hath not Life." — John. 
" Omne vivum ex vivo." — Harvey. 

For two hundred years the scientific world has 
been rent with discussions upon the Origin of 
Life. Two great schools have defended exactly 
opposite views — one that matter can spontan- 
eously generate lifeT^tlie other that life can only 
come from pre-existing life. The doctrine of Spon- 
taneous Generation, as the first is called, has been 
revived within recent years by Dr. Bastian, after 
a series of elaborate experiments on the Begin- 
nings of Life. Stated in his own words, his con' 
elusion is this: "Both observation and experi- 
ment unmistakably testify to the fact that living 
matter is constantly being formed de novo, in obe- 
dience to the same laws and tendencies which 
determine all the more simple chemical combina- 
tions." ^ Life, that is to say, is not the Gift of 
Life. It is capable of springing into being of it- 
self. It can be Spontaneously Generated. 

This announcement called into the field a phalanx 
of observers, and the highest authorities in bio- 
logical science engaged themselves afresh upon 

1 " Beginnings of Life." By H. C. Bastian, M.A., M, 
D., r.R.S. Macmillan, vol. ii. p. 633. 

(55) 



56 BIOGENESIS. 



the problem. The experiments necessary to test 
the matter can be followed' or repeated by any one 
possessing the slightest manipulative skill. Glass 
vessels are three-parts filled with infusions of hay 
or any organic matter. They are boiled to kill all 
germs of life, and hermetically sealed to exclude 
the outer air. The air inside, having been ex- 
posed to the boiling temperature for many hours, 
is supposed to be likewise dead ; so that any life 
which may subsequently appear in the closed 
flasks must have sprung into being of itself. In 
Bastian's experiments, after every expedient to 
secure sterility, life did appear inside in myriad 
quantity. Therefore, he argued, it was spontan- 
eously generated. 

But the phalanx of observers found two errors 
in this calculation. Professor Tyndall repeated 
the same experiment, only with a precaution to 
ensure absolute sterility suggested by the most 
recent science— r a discovery of his own. After 
every care, he conceived there might still be 
undestroyed germs in the air inside the flasks. If 
the air were absolutely germless and pure, would 
the myriad-life appear? He manipulated his ex- 
perimental vessels in an atmosphere which under 
the high test of optical purity — the most delicate 
known test — was absolutel}^ germless. Here not 
a vestige of life appeared. He varied the experi- 
ment in every direction, but matter in the germ- 
less air never yielded life. 

The other error was detected by Mr. Dallinger. 
He found among the lower forms of life tlie most 



BIOGENESIS. 57 



surprising and indestructible vitality. Many 
animals could survive much higher temperatures 
than Dr. Bastian had applied to annihilate them. 
Some germs almost refused to be annihilated — 
they were all but fireproof. 

I These experiments have practically closed the 
question. A decided and authoritative conclusion 
has now taken its place in science. So far as 
science can settle anything, this question is settled. 
The attempt to get the living out of the dead has 
failed. Spontaneous Generation has had to be 
given up. And Jt is now recognized on every 
hand that Life can only come from the touch of 
Liffi. Huxley categorically announces that the 
doctrine _ of Biogenesis, or life only from life, is 
" victorious along the whole line at the present 
day." ^ And even whilst confessing that he wishes 
the evidence were the other way, Tyndall is com- 
pelled to say, " I affirm that no shred of trust- 
worthy experimental testimony exists to prove 
that life in our day has ever appeared independ- 
ently of antecedent life." ^ 

For much more than two hundred years a simi- 
lar discussion has dragged its length through the 
religious world. Tavo great schools here also have 
defended exactly opposite views — one that the 
Spiritual Life in man can only come from pre-/ 
existing Life, the other that it can Spontaneously 
Generate itself. Taking its stand upon the initial 

' "Critiques and Addresses." T. H. Huxley, F.E.S., p. 
239. 

2 Nineteenth €!entiirij, 1878, p. 507. 



58 BIOGENESIS. 



statement of the Author of the Spiritual Life, one 
small school, in the face of derision and opposi- 
tion, has persistently maintained the doctrine of 
Biogenesis. Another, larger and with greater 
pretension to philosophic form, has defended Spon« 
taneous Generation. The weakness of the former 
school consists — though this has been much exag- 
gerated — in its more or less general adherence to 
the extreme view that religion had nothing to do 
with the natural life ; the weakness of the latter 
lay in yielding to the more fatal extreme that it 
had nothing to do with anything else. That man, 
being a worshipping animal by nature, ought to 
maintain certain relations to the Supreme Being, 
was indeed to some extent conceded by the* natur- 
alistic school, but religion itself was looked upon 
as a thing to be spontaneously generated by the 
evolution of character in the laboratory of com- 
mon life. 

; The difference between the two positions is rad- 
' ical. Translating from the language of Science 
into that of Religion, the theory of Spontaneous 
Generation is simply that a man may become 
gradually better and better until in course of the 
process he reaches that quality of religious nature 
\ known as Spiritual Life. This Life is not some- 
thing added ah extra to the natural man ; it is the 
normal and appropriate development of the natural 
man. Biogenesis opposes to this the whole doc- 
trine of Regeneration. The Spiritual Life is the 
gift of the Living Spirit. The spiritual man isjio 
mere development of ti^': natural man. He is a 



BIOGENESIS. 59 



New Creation born from Above. As well expect 
a' Hay infusion to become gradually more and more 
living until in course of the process it reached 
Vitality, as expect a man by becoming better and 
better to attain the Eternal Life. 

The advocates of Biogenesis in Religion have 
founded their argument hitherto all but exclu- 
sively on Scripture. The relation of the doctrine 
to the constitution and course of Nature was not 
disclosed. Its importance, therefore, was solely as 
a dogma ; and being directly concerned with the 
Supernatural, it was valid for those alone who 
chose to accept the Supernatural. 

Yet it has been keenly felt by those who at- 
tempt to defend this doctrine of the origin of the 
Spiritual Life, that they have nothiug more to op- 
pose to the rationalistic view than the ipse dixit of 
Revelation. The argument from experience, in 
the nature of the case, is seldom easy to apply, 
and Christianity has always found at this point a 
genuine difQculty in meeting the challenge of Na- 
tural Religions. The direct authority of Nature, 
using Nature in its limited sense, was not here to 
be sought for. On such a question its voice was 
necessarily silent ; and all that the apologist could 
look for lower down was a distant echo or analogy. 
All that is really possible, indeed, is such an 
analogy ; and if that can now be found in Bio- 
genesis, Christianity in its most central position 
secures at length a support and basis in the Laws 
of Nature. 

Up to the present time the analogy required has 



60 BIOGENESIS. 

not been forthcoming. There was no known 
parallel in Nature for the spiritual phenomena in 
question. But now the case is altered. With the 
eleVation of Biogenesis to the rank of a scientific 
fact, all problems concerning the Origin of Life 
are placed on a different footing. And it remains 
to be seen whether Religion cannot at once re- 
affirm and reshape its argument in the light of this 
modern truth. 

If the doctrine of the Spontaneous Generation 
of Spiritual Life can be met on scientific grounds, 
it will mean the removal of the most serious 
enemy Christianity has to deal with, and espe- 
cially within its own borders, at the present day. 
^The religion of Jesus has probably always suffered 
more from those who have misunderstood than 
^from those who have opposed it. Of the multi- 
tudes who confess Christianity at this hour how 
many have clear in their minds the cardinal dis- 
tinction established by its Founder between 
" born of the flesh " and " born of the Spirit ? " 
By how many teachers of Christianit}^ even is not 
this fundamental postulate persistently ignored? 
A thousand modern pulpits every seventh day are 
preaching the doctrine of Spontaneous Gener- 
ation. The finest and best of recent poetry is 
colored with this same error. Spontaneous Gen- 
eration is the leading theology of the modern re- 
ligious or irreligious novel ; and much of the most 
serious and cultured writing of the day devotes 
itself to earnest preaching of this impossible gos- 
pel. The current conception of the Christian re- 



BIOGENESIS. 6 1 



ligion in short — the conception which is held not 
only popularly but by men of culture — is founded 
upon a view of its origin which, if it were true, 
would render the whole scheme abortive. 

Let us first place vividly in our imagination the 
picture of the two great Kingdoms of Nature, the 
inorganic and organic, as these now stand in the 
light of the Law of Biogenesis. ^VVhat essentially 
is involved in saying that there is no Spontaneous 
Generation of Life ? It is meant that the passage 
from the mineral world to the plant or animal 
world is hermetically sealed on the mineral side. 
This inorganic world is staked off from the living 
world by barriers which have never yet been 
crossed from within. No change of substance, no 
modification of environment, no chemistry, no 
electricity, nor any form of energy, nor any evo- 
lution can endow any single atom of the mineral 
world with the attribute of Life. Only by the 
bending down into this dead world of some living 
form can these dead atoms be gifted with the 
properties of vitality; without this preliminary 
contact with Life they remain fixed in the inor- 
ganic sphere for ever- It is a very mysterious 
Law which guards in this way the portals of the 
living world. And if there is one thing in Nature 
more worth pondering for its strangeness it is the 
spectacle of this vast helpless world of the dead 
•cut off from the living by the Law of Biogenesis 
and denied forever the possibility of resurrection 
within itself^ So very strange a thing, indeed, is 
this broad line in Nature, that Science has long 



62 BIOGENESIS, 



and urgently sought to obliterate it. Biogenesis 
stands in the way of some forms of Evolution with 
such stern persistency that the assaults upon this 
Law for number and thoroughness have been un- 
paralleled. But, as we have seen, it has stood the 
test, (l^ature, to the modern eye, stands broken 
in two^ The physical Laws may explain the inor' 
ganic world; the biological Laws may account for 
the development of the organic. But of the point 
where they meet, of that strange borderland be- 
tween the dead and the living, Science is silent. 
It is as if God had placed everj-thing in earth and 
heaven in the hands of Nature, but reserved a 
point at the genesis of Life for His direct appear- 
ing.; 

The power of the analogy, for which we are 
laying the foundations, to seize and impress the 
mind, will largely depend on the vividness with 
which one realizes the gulf which Nature places 
between the living and the dead.^ But those 

'This being the crucial point it may not be inappro- 
priate to supplement the quotations already given in 
the text with the following : 

" We are in the presence of the one incommunicable 
gulf— the gulf of all gulfs— that gulf which Mr. Hux- 
ley's protoplasm is as powerless to efface as any other 
material expedient that has ever been suggested since 
the eyes of men first looked into it — the mighty gulf 
between death and life."—" As Regards Protoplasm," 
by J. Hutchinson Stirling, LL.D., p. 42. 

*' The present state of knowledge furnishes us with- 
no link between the living and the not-living." — Hux- 
ley, " Encyclopaedia Britannica," (new ed.). Art. " Bi- 
ology." 

• * Whoever recalls to mind the lamentable failure of 



BIOGENESIS. 63 



who, in contemplating Nature, have found their 
attention arrested by this extraordinary dividing- 
line severing the visible universe eternally into 
two ; those who in watching the progress of 
science have seen barrier after barrier disappear — 
barrier between plant and plant, between animal 
and animal, and even between animal and plant 
— but this gulf yawn more hopelessly wide with 
every advance of knowledge, will be prepared to 
attach a significance to the Law of Biogenesis 
and its analogies more profound perhaps than to 
any other fact or law in Nature. If, as Pascal says, 
Nature is an image of grace; if the things that 
are seen are in any sense the images of the un- 
seen, there must lie in this great gulf fixed, this 
most unique and startling of all natural phe- 
nomena, a meaning of peculiar moment. 

Where now in the Spiritual spheres shall we 
meet a companion phenomenon to this ? What 
in the Unseen shall be likened to this deep divid- 
ing line, or where in human experience is another 
barrier which never can be crossed ? 

There is such a barrier. In the dim but not 
inadequate vision of the Spiritual World pre- 

all the attempts made very recently to discover a de- 
cided support for the generatio cequivoca in the lower 
forms of transition from the inorganic to the organic 
world, will feel it doubly serious to demand that this 
theory, so utterly discredited, should be in anyway 
accepted as the basis of all our views of life."— Yir* 
chow : " The Freedom of Science in the Modern State.*" > 
"All really scientific experience tells us that lifer 
can be produced from a living antecedent only.'*-^ ' 
*' The Unseen Universe," 6th ed. p. 229. 



64 BIOGENESIS. 



\A 



sented in the Word of God, the first thing that 
strikes the eye is a great gulf fixed. The passage 
from the Natural World to the Spiritual World is 
hermetically sealed on the natural side. The door 
from the inorganic to the organic is shut, no min- 
eral can open it ; so the door from the natural to 
the spiritual is shut, and no man can open it. 
This world of natural men is staked off from the 
Spiritual World by barriers which have never yet 
been crossed from within. No organic change, 
no modification of environment, no mental energy, 
no moral effort, no evolution of character, no prog- 
ress of civilization can endow any single human 
soul with the attribute of Spiritual Life. The 
Spiritual World is guarded from the world next 
in order beneath it by a law of Biogenesis — ex- 
cept a man he horn again . . . except a man he horn 
of water and of the Spirit^ he cannot enter the King- 
dom of God, 

It is not said, in this enunciation of the law, 
that if the condition be not fulfilled the natural 
man will not enter the Kingdom of God. The 
word is cannot. For the exclusion of the spirit- 
ually inorganic from the Kingdom of the spiritually 
organic is not arbitrary. Nor is the natural man 
refused admission on unexplained grounds. His 
admission is a scientific impossibility. Except a 
mineral be born "from above" — from the King- 
dom just ahove it — it cannot enter the Kingdom 
just above it. And except a man be born *' from 
above," by the same law, he cannot enter the 
Kingdom just above him. There being no pas- 



BIOGENESIS. 65 



sage from one Kingdom to another, whether from 
inorganic to organic, or from organic to spiritual, 
r the intervention of Life is a scientific necessity if 
( a stone or a plant or an animal or a man is to pass 
\ from a lower to a higher sphere. The plant 
stretches down to the dead world beneath it, 
touches its minerals and gases with its mystery of 
Life, and brings them up ennobled and trans- 
formed to the living sphere. The breath of God, 
blowing where it listeth, touches with its mystery 
of Life the dead souls of men, bears them across 
the bridgeless gulf between the natural and the 
spiritual, between the spiritually inorganic and 
the spiritually organic, endows them with its own 
high qualities, and develops within them these new 
and secret faculties, by which those who are born 
again are said to see the Kingdom of God. 

What is the evidence for this great gulf fixeCi. 
at the portals of the Spiritual World? Does Sci- 
ence close this gate, or Reason, or Experience, or 
Revelation? We reply, all four. The initial 
statement, it is not to be denied, reaches us from 
Revelation. But is not this evidence here in 
court? Or shall it be said that any argument 
deduced from this is a transparent circle — that 
after all we simply come back to the unsubstan- 
tiality of the ipse dixit ? Not altogether, for the 
analogy lends an altogether new authority to the 
ipse dixit. How substantial that argument really 
is, is seldom realized. We yield the point here 
much too easily. The right of the Spiritual World 
to speak of its own phenomena is as secure as the 
5 



66 BIOGENESIS, 



right of the Natural World to speak of itself* 
What is Science but what the Natural World has 
said to natural men? What is Revelation but 
what the Spiritual World has said to Spiritual 
men? Let us at least ask what Revelation has 
announced with reference to this Spiritual Law of 
Biogenesis ; afterward we shall inquire whether 
Science, while endorsing the verdict, may not also 
have some further vindication of its title to be 
heard. 

The words of Scripture which preface this in- 
quiry contain an explicit and original statement 
of the Law of Biogenesis for the Spiritual Life. 
" He that hath the Son hath Life, and he that 
hath not the Son of God hath not Life." Life, 
that is to say, depends upon contact with Life. 
It cannot spring up of itself. It cannot develop 
out of anything that is not Life. There is no 
Spontaneous Generation in religion any more than 
in Nature. Christ is the source of Life in the 
Spiritual World ; and he that hath the Son hath 
Life, and he that hath not the Son, whatever else 
-he may have, hath not Life. Here, in short, is 
the categorical denial of Abiogenesis and the 
establishment in this high field of the classical 
formula Omne vivum ex vivo — no Life without- an- 
tecedent Life. In this mystical theory of the 
Origin of Life the whole of the New Testament 
writers are agreed. And, as we have already 
seen, Christ Himself founds Christianity upon 
Biogenesis stated in its most literal form. '' Ex- 
cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit he 



BIOGENESIS. 6^ 



cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which 
is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I 
said unto you, ye must be born again." ^ Why 
did He add Marvel not ? Did He seek to allay 
the fear in the bewildered ruler's mind that there 
was more in this novel doctrine than a simple 
analogy from the first to the second birth? 

The attitude of the natural man, again, with 
reference to the Spiritual, is a subject on which 
the New Testament is equally pronounced. Not 
only in his relation to the spiritual man, but to 
the whole Spiritual World, the natural man is 
regarded as dead. He is as a crystal to an organ- 
ism. The natural world is to the Spiritual as the 
inorganic to the organic. ''To be carnally minded 
. is Death''' ^ " Thou hast a name to live, but art 
Dead.'' ^ " She that liveth in pleasure is Dead 
while she liveth." ^ " To you hath He given Life 
which were Dead in trespasses and sins." ^ 

It is clear that a remarkable harmony exists 
here between the Organic World as arranged by 
Science and the Spiritual World as arranged by 
Scripture. We find one great Law guarding the 
thresholds of both worlds, securing that entrance 
from a lower sphere shall only take place by a 
direct regenerating act, and that emanating from 
the world next in order above. There are not 
two laws of Biogenesis, one for the natural, the 
.other for the Spiritual; one law is for both. 
1 John iii. 2 R-m. viii. 6. ^ Eev. iii. 1. ^ 1 xim. v. 6. 
^ Eph. ii, 1, 5. 



6S BIOGENESIS. 



Wherever there is Life, Life of any kind, this 
same law holds. The analogy, therefore, is only 
among the phenomena ; between laws there is no 
analogy — there is Continuity, In either case, the 
first step in peopling these worlds with the appro- 
priate living forms is virtually miracle. Nor in 
one case is there less of mystery in the act than 
in the other. The second birth is scarcely less 
perplexing to the theologian than the first to the 
embryologist. 

A moment's reflection ought now to make it 
clear why in the Spiritual World there had to be 
added to this mystery the further mystery of its 
proclamation through the medium of Revelation. 
This is the point at which the scientific man is 
apt to part company with the theologian. He in- 
sists on having all things materialized before his 
eyes in Nature. If Nature cannot discuss this 
with him, there is nothing to discuss. But Na- 
ture can discuss this with him — only she cannot 
open the discussion or supply all the material to 
begin with. If Science averred that she could do 
this, the theologian this time must part company 
with such Science. For any Science which makes 
such a demand is false to the doctrines of Biogene- 
sis. What is this but the demand that a lower 
world, hermetically sealed against all communica- 
tion with a world above it, should have a mature 
and intelligent acquaintance with its phenomena 
and laws? Can the mineral discourse to me of 
animal Life? Can it tell me what lies beyond the 
narrow boundary of its inert being? Knowing 



BIOGENESIS. 69 



nothing of other than the chemical and physical 
laws, what is its criticism worth of the principles 
of Biology ? And even when some visitor from 
the upper world, for example some root from a 
living tree, penetrating its dark recess, honors it 
with a touch, will it presume to define the form 
and purpose of its patron, or until the bioplasm 
has done its gracious work can it even know that 
it is being touched ? The barrier which separates 
Kingdoms from one another restricts rqind not less 
than matter. Any information of the Kingdoms 
above it that could come to the mineral world 
could only come by a communication from above. 
An analogy from the lower world might make 
such communication intelligible as well as credi- 
ble, but the information in the first instance must 
be vouchsafed as a revelation. Similarly if those 
in the Organic Kingdom are to know anything of 
the Spiritual World, that knowledge must at least 
begin as Revelation. Men who reject this source 
of information, by the Law of Biogenesis, can 
have no_other^ It is no spell of ignorance arbi- 
trarily laid upon certain members of the Organic 
Kingdom that prevents them reading the secrets 
of the Spiritual World. It is a scientific neces- 
Isity^ No exposition of the— ease eould be more 
truly scientific than this : " The natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for 
they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know 
them., because they are spiritually discerned." ^ 
The verb here, it will be again observed, is poten- 
1 Cor. ii. 14. 



70 BIOGENESIS. 



tial. This is not a dogma of theology, but a ne- 
cessity of Science. And Science, for the most 
part, has consistently accepted the situation. It 
has always proclaimed its ignorance of the Spirit- 
ual World. When Mr. Herbert Spencer affirms, 
"Regarding Science as a gradually increasing 
sphere we may say that every addition to its sur- , 
face does not but bring it into wider contact with 
surrounding nescience,'' ^ from his standpoint he 
is quite correct. The endeavors of well-meaning 
persons to show that the Agnostic's position, when 
he asserts his ignorance of the Spiritual World, is 
only a pretence ; the attempts to prove that he 
really knows a great deal about it if he would only 
admit it, are quite misplaced. He really does not 
know. The verdict that the natural man receiv- 
eth not the things of the Spirit of God, that they 
are foolishness unto him, that neither can lie know 
them, is final as a statement of scientific truth — a 
statement on which the entire Agnostic literature 
is simply one long commentary. 

We are now in a better position to follow out 
the more practical bearings of Biogenesis. There 
is an immense region surrounding Regeneration, 
a dark and perplexing region where men would 
be thankful for any light. It may well be that 
Biogenesis in its many ramifications may yet reach 
down to some of the deeper mysteries of the 
Spiritual Life. But meantime there is much to 
define even on the surface. And for the present 

' "First Principles," 2d ed., p. 17. 



BI0GENECI3 



we shall content ourselves by turning its light 
upon one or two points of current interest. 

It must long ago have appeared how decisive is 
the answer of Science to the practical question 
with which we set out as to the possibility of a 
Spontaneous Development of Spiritual Life in the 
individual soul. The inquiry into the Origin of 
Life is the fundamental question alike of Biology 
and Christianity. We can afford to enlarge upon 
it, therefore, even at the risk of repetition. When 
men are offering us a Christianity without a living 
Spirit, and a personal religion without conversio7i^ 
no emphasis or reiteration can be extreme. Be- 
sides, the clearness as well as the definiteness of 
the Testimony of Nature to any Spiritual truth 
is of immense importance. - Regeneration has not 
merely been an outstanding difficulty, but an 
overwhelming obscurity. Even to earnest minds 
the difficulty of grasping the truth at all has always 
proved extreme. Philosophically one scarcely 
sees either the necessity or the possibility of being 
born again. Why a virtuous man should not 
simply grow better and better until in his own 
right he enter the Kingdom of God is what thou- 
sands honestly and seriously fail to understando 
Now Philosophy cannot help us here. Her argu- 
ments are, if anything, against us. But Science 
answers to the appeal at once. If it be simply 
pointed out that this is the same absurdity as to 
ask why a stone should not grow more and more 
living till it enters the Organic World, the point 
is clear in an instant. 



72 BIOGENESIS. 



What now, let us ask specifically, distinguishes 
a Christian man from a non-Christian man ? Is it 
that he has certain mental characteristics not pos- 
sessed by the other? Is it that certain faculties 
have been trained in him, that morality assumes 
special and higher manifestations, and character a 
nobler form ? Is the Christian merely an ordi- 
nary man who happens from birth to have been 
surrounded with a peculiar set of ideas ? Is his 
religion merely that peculiar quality of the moral 
life defined by Mr. Matthew Arnold as " morality 
touched by emotion ? " And does the possession 
of a high ideal, benevolent sympathies, a reverent 
spirit, and a favorable environment account for 
what men call his Spiritual Life ? 

The distinction between them is the same as 
that between the Organic and the Inorganic, the 
living and the dead. What is the difference be- 
tween a crystal and an organism, a stone and a 
plant ? They have much in common. Both are 
made of the same atoms. Both display the 
same properties of matter. Both are subject to 
the Physical Laws. Both may be very beauti- 
ful. But besides possessing all that the crys- 
tal has, the plant possesses something more — a 
mysterious something called Life. This Life is 
not something which existed in the crystal only 
in a less developed form. There is nothing at all 
like it in the crystal. There is nothing like the 
first beginning of it in the crj^stal, not a trace or 
symptom of it. This plant is tenanted by some- 
thing new, an original and unique possession 



BIOGENESIS, 73 



added over and above all the properties common 
to both. When from vegetable Life we rise to 
animal Life, here again we find something original 
and unique — unique at least as compared with 
the mineral. From animal Life we ascend agjain to 
Spiritual Life. ~^Snd liere^also is something new, 
something still more unique. He who lives the 
Spiritual Life has a distinct kind of Life added to 
all the other phases of Life which he manifests — 
a kind of Life infinitely -more distinct than is the 
active Life of a plant from the inertia of a stone. 
The Spiritual man is more distinct in point of fact 
than is the plant from the stone. This is the one. 
possible comparison in Nature, for it is the widest 
distinction in Nature; but compared with the 
difference between the Natural and the Spiritual 
the gulf which divides the organic from the inor- 
ganic is a hair's-breadth. The natural man be- 
longs essentially to this present order of things. 
He is endowed simply with a high quality of the 
natural animal Life. But it is Life of so poor a 
quality that it is not Life at all. He that hath 
not the Son liath not Life ; but he that hath the 
Son hath Life — a new and distinct and supernat- 
ural endowment. He is not of this world. He 
is of the timeless state, of Eternity. It doth not 
yet appear what he shall he. 

The difference then between the Spiritual man 
and the Natural man is not a difference of devel- 
opment, but of generation. It is a distinction 
of quality, not of quantity. A man cannot rise 
by any natural development from "morality 



74 BIOGENESIS. 



touched by emotion," to " morality touched bjr 
Lifcc" Were we to construct a scientific classi- 
fication, Science would compel us to arrange- 
all natural men, moral or immoral, educated or 
vulgar, as one family. One might be high in the 
family group, another low; yet, practically, they 
are marked by the same set of characteristics— 
they eat, sleep, work, think, live, die. But the 
Spiritual man is removed from this family so ut- 
terly by the possession of an additional character- 
istic that a biologist, fully informed of the whole 
circumstances, would not hesitate a moment to 
classify him elsewhere. And if he really entered 
into these circumstances it would not be in an- 
other family but in another Kingdom. It is an 
old-fashioned theology which divides the world in 
this way — which speaks of men as Living and 
Dead, Lost and Saved — a stern theology all but 
fallen into disuse. This difference between the 
Living and the Dead in souls is so unproved by 
casual observation, so impalpable in itself, sa 
startling as a doctrine, that schools of culture 
have ridiculed or denied the grim distinction. 
Kevertheless the grim distinction must be re-\ 
tained. It is a scientific distinction, " He that { 
hath not the Son hath not Life." 

Now it is this great Law which finally distin- 1 
guishes Christianity from all other religions. Itl 
places the religion of Christ upon a footing alto- 
gether unique. There is no analogy between the 
Christian religion and, say. Buddhism or the Mo- 
hammedan religion. There is no true sense vol 






JOHN TYNDALL 



BIOGENESIS. 75 

which a man can say, He that hath Buddha hath 
Life. Buddha has nothing to do with Life. He 
may have something to do with moralit}^ He 
may stimulate, impress, teach, guide, but there is 
no distinct new thing added to the souls of those 
, who profess Buddhism. These religions may be 
developments of the natural, mental, or moral 
m«,n. But Christianity professes to be more. It 
is the mental or moral man 'plus something else or 
some One else. It is the infusion into the Spirit- 
ual man of a New Life, of a quality unlike any-* 
thing else in Nature. This constitutes the sepa- 
rate Kingdom of Christ, and gives to Christianity 
alone of all the religions of mankind the strange . 
mark of Divinity. ' 

Shall we next inquire more precisely what is 
this something extra which constitutes Spiritual 
Life ? What is this strange and new endowment 
in its nature and vital essence ? And the answer 
is brief — it is Christ. He that hath the Son hath 
Life. 

Are we forsaking the lines of Science in saying 
so ? Yes and No. Science has drawn for us the 
distinction. It has no voice as to the nature of 
the distinction except this — that the new endow- 
ment is a something different from anythiug else 
with which it deals. It is not ordinary Vitality, 
it is not intellectual, it is not moral, but something 
beyond. And Revelation steps in and names what 
it is — it is Christ. Out of the multitude of sen- 
tences where this announcement is made, these 
few may be selected : " Know ye not your own 
D 



'je BIOGENESIS. 

selves how that Jesu^ Christ is in you ? " ^ " Your 
bodies are the members of Christ."^ "At that 
day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye 
in Me, and I in you." ^ *' We will come unto him 
and make our abode with him." ^ "I am the 
Vine, ye are the branches." ^ "I am crucified with 

.Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me." ^ 

Three things are clear from these statements : 
First, They are not mere figures of rhetoric. They 
are explicit declarations. If language means any- 
thing these words announce a literal fact. In 
some of Christ's own statements the literalisr^ is 
if possible still more impressive. For instancy, 
*' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eter^ 
nal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. 
For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is 
drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and 
drinketh My blood divelleth in Me and I in him.'" 

In the second place. Spiritual Life is not some- 
thing outside ourselves. The idea is not that 
Christ is in heaven and that we can stretch out 
some mysterious faculty and deal with Him there. 
This is the vague form in which many conceive 
the truth, but it is contrary to Christ's teaching 

<and to the analogy of nature. Vegetable Life is 
not contained in a reservoir somewhere in the 
skies, and measured out spasmodically at certain 

' 2 Cor. xii. 5. 2 1 Cor. vi. 15. ^ John xiv. 10. 

* John xiv. 21-23 ^ joim ^v. 4. « Q-ai. n. 20. 



BIOGENESIS. 77 



seasons. The Life is in every plant and tree, in- 
side its own substance and tissue, and continues 
there until it dies. [^ This localization of Life in 
the individual is precisely the point where Vitality 
differs from the other forces of nature, such as 
magnetism and electricity. ^ Vitality has much in 
common with such forces as magnetism and elec- 
tricity, but there is one inviolable distinction be- 
tween them — that Life is permanently fixed and 
rooted in the organism. The doctrines of con- 
servation and transformation of energy, that is to 
say, do not hold for Vitality. The electrician can 
demagnetize a bar of iron, that is, he can trans- 
form its energy of magnetism into something else 
— heat, or motion, or light — and then re-form 
these back into magnetism. For magnetism has 
no root, no individuality, no fixed indwelling. 
But the biologist cannot devitalize a plant or an 
animal and revivify it again. ^ Life is not one of 
the homeless forces which promiscuously inhabit 
space, or which can be gathered like electricity 
from the clouds and dissipated back again into 
space. Life is definite and resident ; and Spirit- 
ual Life is not a visit from a force, but a resident 
tenant in the soul. ^ 



' One must not be misled by popular statements in 
this connection, such as this of Professor Owen's: 
" There are organisms which we can devitalize and re- 
vitalize — devive and revive— many times." {Monthly 
Microscopical Journal, May, 1869, p. 294.) The reference 
is of course to the extraordinary capacity for resuscita' 
tion possessed by many of the ^Protozoa and other low 
forms of life. 



78 BIOGENESIS. 

This is, however, to formuhite the statement of 
the third point, that spiritual Life is not an ordi- 
nary form of energy or force. The analogy from 
Nature endorses this, but here Nature stops. It 
cannot say what Spiritual Life is. Indeed what 
natural Life is remains unknown, and the word 
Life still wanders through Science without a defi- 
nition. Nature is silent, therefore, and must be 
as to Spiritual Life. But in the absence of natural 
light we fall back upon that complementary reve- 
lation which always shines when truth is necessary 
and where Nature fails. * We ask with Paul when 
this Life first visited him on the Damascus road, 
"What is this? " " Who art Thou, Lord? " And 
Tve hear, " I am Jesus," ^ 

We must expect to find this denied. Besides a 
proof from Revelation, this is an argument from 
experience. And 3'et we shall still be told that 
this Spiritual Life is a force. But let it be re- 
membered what this means in Science ; it means 
the heresy of confounding Force with Vitality. 
We must also expect to be told that this Spiritual 
Life is simply a development of ordinary Life — 
just as Dr. Bastian tells us that natural Life is 
formed according to the same laws which deter- 
mine the more simple chemical combinations. But 
remember what this means in Science. It is the 
heresy of Spontaneous Generation, a heresy so 
thoroughly discredited now that scarcely an au- 
thority in Europe will lend his name to it. Who 
art Thou, Lord ? Unless we are to be allowed to 
' Acts ix. 5o 



BIOGENESIS. 79 



hold Spontaneous Generation there is no alterna- 
tive : Life can only come from Life : " I am *^ 
Jesus." 

A hundred other questious now rushed into the- 
mind about this Life : How does it come ? Why 
does it come? How is it manifested? What 
faculty does it employ ? Where does it reside ? 
Is it communicable ? What are its conditions ? 
One or two of these questions may be vaguely 
answered ; the rest bring us face to face with mys- 
tery. Let it not be thought that the scientific 
treatment of a Spiritual subject has reduced relig- 
ion to a problem of physics, or demonstrated God 
by the laws of biology. A religion without mys- 
tery is an absurdity. Even science has its mys- 
teries, none more inscrutable than around thi& 
Science of Life. It taught us sooner or later to 
expect mystery, and now we enter its domain. 
Let it be carefully marked, however, that the cloud 
does not fall and cover us til\ we have ascertained 
the most momentous truth of Religion — that 
Christ is in the Christian. 

Not that there is anything new in this. The 
Churches have always held that Christ was the 
source of Life. No spiritual man ever claims that 
his spirituality in his own. " I live," he will tell ♦* 
you; ^'nevertheless it is not I, but Christ liveth 
in me. ' Christ our Life has indeed been the only 
doctrine in the Christian Church from Paul to 
Augustine, from Calvin to Newman. Yet, when 
the Spiritual man is cross-examined upon this con- 
:iession it is astonishing to find what uncertain 



So BIOGENESIS, 



hold it has upon his mind. Doctrinally he states 
it adequately and holds it unhesitatingly. But 
when pressed with the literal question he shrinks 
from the answer. We do not really believe that 
the Living Christ has touched us, that He makes 
His abode in us. Spiritual Life is not as real to 
us as natural Life. And we cover our retreat into 
unbelieving vagueness with a plea of reverence, 
justified, as we think, by the " Thus far and no 
farther " of ancient Scriptures. There is often a 
great deal of intellectual sin concealed under this 
old aphorism. When men do not really wish to 
go farther they find it an honorable convenience 
sometimes to sit down on the outermost edge of 
the Holy Ground on the pretext of taking off their 
shoes. Yet we must be certain that, making a 
virtue of reverence, we are not merely excusing 
ignorance ; or, under the plea of mystery, evad- 
ing a truth which has been stated in the New 
Testament a hundred times, in the most literal 
form, and with all*, but monotonous repetition. 
The greatest truths are always the most loosely 
held. And not the least of the advantages of 
taking up this question from the present standpoint 
is that we may see how a confused doctrine can 
really bear the luminous definition of Science and 
force itself upon us with all the weight of Natural 
Law. 

What is mystery to many men, what feeds their 
worship, and at the same time spoils it, is that 
area round all great truth which is really capable 
of illumination, and into which every earnest mind 



BIOGENESIS. 8 1 



is permitted and commanded to go with a light. 
We cry mystery long before the region of mystery 
comes. True mystery casts no shadows aroand. 
It is a sudden and awful gulf yawning across the 
field of knowledge ; its form is irregular, but its 
lips are clean cut and sharp, and the mind can go 
to the very verge and look down the precipice into 
the dim abyss,— r 

" Where writhing clouds unroll, 
Striving to utter themselves in shapes." 

We have gone with a light to the very verge of 
this truth. We have seen that the Spiritual Life 
is an endowment from the Spiritual World, and 
that the Living Spirit of Christ dwells in the 
Christian. But now the gulf yawns black before 
us. What more does Science know of Life? 
Nothing. It knows nothing further about its 
origin in detail. It knows nothing about its ulti- 
mate nature. It cannot even define it. There is 
a helplessness in scientific books here, and a con- 
tinual confession of it which to thoughtful minds 
is almost touching. Science, therefore, has not 
eliminated the true mysteries from our faith, but 
only the false. And it has done more. It has 
made true mystery scientific. Religion in having 
mystery is in analogy with all around it. Where 
there is exceptional mystery in the Spiritual world 
it will generally be found that there is a corres- 
ponding mystery in the natural world. And, as 
Origen centuries ago insisted, the difficulties of 
Religion are simply the difficulties of Nature. 
6 



82 BIOGENESIS. 

One question more we may look at for a mo- 
ment. What can be gathered on the surface as 
to the process of Regeneration in the individual 
soul ? From the analogies of Biology we should 
expect three things : Eiist, that the New Life 
should dawn suddenly ; Secpnd, that it should 
come " without observation ; " Third, that it 
should develop gradually. On. two of these 
points there can be little controversy. The grad- 
ualness of growth is a characteristic which strikes 
the simplest observer. Long before the word 
Evol^ition was coined Christ applied it in this very 
connection — " First the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear." \^It is well known also 
to those who study the parables of Nature that 
there is an ascending scale of slowness as we rise 
in the scale of Life. Growth is most gradual in 
the highest forms. Man attains his maturit}' after 
a score of years ; the monad completes its humble 
cycle in a day. What wonder if development be 
tardy in the Creature of Eternity ? A Christian's 
sun has sometimes set, and a critical world has * 
seen as j^et no corn in the ear. As yet ? " As 
yet," in this long Life, has not begun. Grant 
him the years proportionate to his place in the! 
scale of Life. '' The time of harvest is not yet'' ' 
/ Again, in addition to being slow, the phenom- 
ena of growth are secret. Life is invisible. 
When the New Life manifests itself it is a sur- 
1 prise. TJiou canst not tell iclience it cometh 07 
\ivhithe7' it goeth. When the plant lives whence 
has the Life come ? When it dies whither has it 



BIOGENESIS. 83 



gone? Thou canst not tell . . , so is every one that 
is born of the Spirit. For the kingdom of God 
Cometh without observation. 

Yet once more, — and this is a point of strange 
and frivolous dispute, — this Life comes suddenlj. 
This is the only way in which Life can come. 
Life cannot come gradually — health can, structure 
can, but not Life. A new theology has laughed 
at the Doctrine of Conversion. Sudden Conver- 
sion, especially, has been ridiculed as untrue to 
philosophy and impossible to human nature. We 
may not be concerned in buttressing any theology 
because it is old. But we find that this old theol- 
ogy is scientific. There may be cases — they are 
probably in the majority — where the moment of 
contact with the Living Spirit though sudden has 
been obscure. But the real moment and the con- 
scious moment are two different things. Science 
pronounces nothing as to the conscious moment. 
If it did it would probably say that that was sel- 
dom the real moment — ^just as in the natural Life 
the conscious moment is not the real moment. 
The moment of birth in the natural world is not a 
conscious moment — we do not know we are born 
till long afterward. Yet there are men to whom 
the Origin of the New Life in time has been no 
difficulty. To Paul, for instance, Christ seems to 
have come at a definite period of time, the exact 
moment and second of which could have been 
known. And this is certainly, in theory at least, 
the normal Origin of Life, according to the prin- 
ciples of Biology. The Line between the living 



8j. biogenesis. 



and the dead is a sharp line. When the dead 
atoms of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, 
are seized upon by Life, the organism at first is 
very lowly. It possesses few functions. It has 
little beauty. Growth is the work of time. But 
Life is not. That comes in a moment. At one 
1 moment it was dead ; the next it lived. This is 
loonversion, the " passing," as the Bible calls it, 
" from Death unto Life." Those who have stood 
by another's side at the solemn hour of this dread 
possession have been conscious sometimes of an 
experience which words are not allowed to utter 
— a something like the sudden snapping of a 
ehain, the waking from a dream. 



DEGENERATION. 



" / went hy the -field of the slothful, and hy the vineyard of the 
man void of understanding ; and lo, it was all grown over with 
thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall 
thereof was hroTcen down. Then I saw and considered it well; 1 
looked upon it and received instruction.^^ — Solomon. 



DEGENERATION. 

•'How shall we escape if we neglect so great sal va« 
tion ? " — Hebrews, 

"We have as possibilities either Balance, or Elabora- 
tion, or Degeneration." — E. Bay Lankester. 

In one of his best known books, Mr. Darwin 
brings out a fact which may be illustrated in some 
such way as this : Suppose a bird fancier collects 
a flock of tame pigeons distinguished by all the 
infinite ornamentations of their race. They are 
of all kinds, of every shade of color, and adorned 
with every variety of marking. He takes them 
to an uninhabited island and allows them to fly 
off wild into the woods. They found a colony 
there, and after the lapse of many years the 
owner returns to the spot. He will find that a 
remarkable change has taken place in the interval. 
The birds, or their descendants rather, have all 
become changed into the same color. The black, 
the white and the dun, the striped, the spotted, 
and the ringed, are all metamorphosed into one — 
a dark slaty blue. Two plain black bands monot- 
onously repeat themselves upon the wings of 
each, and the loins beneath are white ; but all the 
variety, all the beautiful colors, all the old graces 
of form it may be, have disappeared. These im- 
provements were the result of care and nurture, 

V87) 



88 DEGENERATION. 

of domestication, of civilization ; and now that 
these influences are removed, the birds themselves 
undo the past and lose what they had gained. 
The attempt to elevate the race has been mys- 
teriously thwarted. It is as if the original bird, the 
far remote ancestor of all doves, had been blue, and 
these had been compelled by some strange law to 
discard the badges of their civilization and con- 
form to the ruder image of the first. The natural 
law by which such a change occurs is called The 
Princi2)le of Reversion to Type. 

It is a proof of the universality of this law that 
the same thing will happen with a plant. A 
garden is planted, let us say, with strawberries 
and roses, and for a number of years is left alone. 
In process of time it will run to waste. But this 
does not mean that the plants will really waste 
away, but that they will change into something 
else, and, as it invariably appears, into something 
worse ; in the one case, namely, into the small, 
wild strawberry of the woods, and in the other 
into the primitive dog-rose of the hedges. 

If we neglect a garden plant, then, a natural 
principle of deterioration comes in, and changes 
it into a worse plant. And if we neglect a bird, 
by the same imperious law it will be gradually 
changed into an uglier bird. Or if we neglect 
almost any of the domestic animals, they will 
rapidly revert to wild and w^orthless forms again. 

Now the same thing exactly would happen in 
the case of you or me. Why should Man be an 
exception to any of the laws of Nature ? Nature 



DEGENERATION. 89 

knows him simply as an animal — Sub-kingdom 
Vertehrata, Class Mammalia^ Order Bimana. And 
the law of Reversion to Type runs through all 
creation. If a man neglect himself for a few 
years he will change into a worse man and a lower 
man. If it is his body that he neglects, he will 
deteriorate into a wild and bestial savage — like 
the de-humanized men who are discovered some- 
times upon desert islands. If it is his mind, it 
will degenerate into imbecility and madness — 
solitary confinement has the power to unmake 
men's minds and leave them idiots. If he neglect 
his conscience, it will run off into lawlessness and 
vice. Or, lastly, if it is his soul, it must inevitably 
atrophy, drop off in ruin and decay. 

We have here, then, a thoroughly natural basis 
for the question before us. If we neglect, with 
this universal principle staring us in the face, how 
shall we escape ? If we neglect the ordinary 
means of keeping a garden in order, how shall it 
escape running to weeds and waste ? Or, if we 
neglect the opportunities for cultivating the mind, 
how shall it escape ignorance and feebleness? 
So, if we neglect the soul, how shall it escape the 
natural retrograde movement, the inevitable re- 
lapse into barrenness and death ? 

It is not necessary, surely, to pause for proof 
that there is such a retrograde principle in the 
being of every man. It is demonstrated by facts, 
and by the analogy of all Nature. Three possi- 
bilities of life, according to Science, are open to 
all living organisms — Balance, Evolution, and De- 



90 DEGENERA TION. 

generation. The first denotes the precarious per- 
sistence of a life along what looks like a level 
path, a character which seems to hold its own 
alike against the attacks of evil and the appeals of 
good. It implies a set of circumstances so balanced 
by choice or fortune that they neither influence 
for better nor for worse. But except in theory 
this state of equilibrium, normal in the inorganic 
kingdom, is really foreign to the world of life; 
and what seems inertia may be a true Evolution 
unnoticed from its slowness, or likelier still a 
movement of Degeneration subtly obliterating 
as it falls the very traces of its former height. 
From this state of apparent Balance, Evolution 
is the escape in the upward direction, Degenera- 
tion in the lower. But Degeneration, rather than 
Balance or Elaboration, is the possibilit}^ of life 
embraced by the majority of mankind. And the 
choice is determined by man's own nature. The 
life of Balance is difficult. It lies on the verge of 
continual temptation, its perpetual adjustments 
become fatiguing, its measured virtue is monot- 
onous and uninspiring. More difQcult still, ap- 
parently, is the life of ever upward growth. 
Most men attempt it for a time, but growth is 
slow ; and despair overtakes them while the goal 
is far away. Yet none of these reasons fully ex- 
plains the fact that the alternative which remains 
is adopted by the majority of men. That De- 
generation is easy only half accounts for it. Why 
is it easy ? Why but that already in each man's 
very nature this principle is supreme ? He feels 



DE GENERA TION. g I 

within his soul a silent drifting motion impelling 
Mm downward with irresistible force. Instead of 
aspiring to Conversion to a higher Type he sub- 
mits by a law of Ms nature to Reversion to a 
lower. This is Degeneration — that principle by 
which the organism, failing to develop itself, fail= 
ing even to keep what it has got, deteriorates^ 
and becomes more and more adapted to a de- 
graded form of life. 

All men who know themselves are conscious 
that this tendency, deep-rooted and active, existg 
within their nature. Theologically it is described 
as a gravitation, a bias toward evil. The Bible view 
is that man is conceived in sin and shapen in in- 
iquity. And experience tells him that he will 
shape himself into further sin and ever deepening 
iniquity without the smallest effort, without in 
the least intending it, and in the most natural 
way in the world if he simply let his life run. It 
is on this principle that, completing the con- 
ception, the wicked are said further in the Bible 
to be lost. They are not really lost as yet, but 
they are on the sure way to it. The bias of their 
lives is in full action. There is no drag on any- 
where. The natural tendencies are having it all 
their own way ; and although the victims may be 
quite unconscious that all this is going on, it is pat- 
ent to every one who considers even the natural 
bearings of the case that " the end of these things 
is Death." When we see a man fall from the top 
of a five-story house, we say the man is lost. We 
say that before he has fallen a foot ; for the same 



92 DEGENERATION. 

principle that made him fall the one foot will un- 
doubtedly make him complete the descent by fall- 
ing other eighty or ninety feet. So that he is a 
dead man, or a lost man from the very first. The 
gravitation of sin in a human soul acts precisely 
in the same way. Gradually, with gathering mo- 
mentum it sinks a man further and further from 
God and righteousness, and lands him, by the 
sheer action of a natural law, in the hell of a 
neglected life. 

But the lesson is not less clear from analogy. 
Apart even from the law of Degeneration, apart 
from Reversion to Type, there is in every living 
organism a law of Death. We are wont to imag- 
ine that Nature is full of Life. In reality it is 
full of Death. One cannot say it is natural for a 
plant to live. Examine its nature fully, and j^ou 
have to admit that its natural tendency is to die. 
It is kept from dying b}^ a mere temporary endow- 
ment, which gives it an ephemeral dominion over 
the elements — gives it power to utilize for a brief 
span the rain, the sunshine, and the air. With- 
draw this temporary endowment for a moment 
and its true nature is revealed. Instead of over- 
coming Nature it is overcome. The very things 
which appeared to minister to its growth ancf 
beauty now turn against it and make it decaj 
and die. The sun which warmed it, withers it \ 
the air and rain which nourished it, rot it. It is 
the very forces which we associate with life which, 
when their true nature appears, are discovered to 
be really the ministers of death. 



DEGENERATION. 93 

This law, which is true for the whole plant- 
world, is also valid for the animal and for man. 
Air is not life, but corruption — so literally cor- 
ruption that the only way to keep out corruption, 
when life has ebbed, is to keep out air. Life is 
merely a temporary suspension of these destruct- 
ive powers ; and this is truly one of the most ac- 
curate definitions of life we have yet received — 
" the sum total of the functions which resist 
death." 

Spiritual life, in like manner, is the sum total 
of the functions which resist sin. The soul's at- 
mosphere is the daily trial, circumstance, and 
temptation of the world. And as it is life alone 
which gives the plant power to utilize the ele- 
ments, and as, without it, they utilize it, so it is 
the spiritual life alone which gives the soul power 
to utilize temptation and trial; and without it 
they destroy the soul. How shall we escape if we 
refuse to exercise these functions — in other words, 
if we neglect? 

This destroying process, observe, goes on quite 
independently of God's judgment on sin. God's 
judgment on sin is another and a more awful fact 
of which this may be a part. But it is a distinct 
fact by itself, which we can hold and examine 
separately, that on purely natural principles the 
soul that is left to itself unwatched, uncultivated, 
unredeemed, must fall away into death by its own 
nature. The soul that sinneth " it shall die." It 
shall die, not necessarily because God passes sen- 
tence of death upon it, but because it cannot help 



94 DEGENERATION. 

dying. It has neglected " the functions which re- 
sist death," and has always been dying. The 
punishment is in its very nature, and the sentence 
is being gradually carried out all along the path 
of life by ordinary processes which enforce the 
verdict with the appalling faithfulness of law. 

There is an affectation that religious truths lie 
beyond the sphere of the comprehension which 
serves men in ordinary things. This question at 
least must be an exception. It lies as near the 
natural as the spiritual. If it makes no impres- 
sion on a man to know that God will visit his ini- 
quities upon him, he cannot blind himself to the 
fact that Nature will. , Do we not all know what 
it is to be punished by Nature for disobeying 
her ? We have looked round the wards of a hos- 
pital, a prison, or a madhouse, and seen there 
Nature at work squaring her accoutits with sin. 
And we knew as we looked that if no Judge sat 
on the throne of heaven at all there was a Judg- 
ment there, where an inexorable Nature was cry- 
ing aloud for justice, and carrying out her heavy 
sentences for violated laws. 

When God gave Nature the law into her own 
hands in this way. He seems to have given her 
two rules upon which her sentences were to be 
based. The one is formally enunciated in this 
sentence, " Whatsoever a man soweth that 
SHALL HE ALSO REAP." The other is informally 
expressed in this, " If we neglect how shall 

WE ESCAPE ? " 

The first is the positive law, and deals with sins 



DE GENERA TION, 9 5 

of commission. The other, which we are now 
discussing, is the negative, and deals with sins of 
omission. It does not say anything about sowing, 
but about not sowing. It takes up the case of 
souls which are lying fallow. It does not say, if 
we sow corruption we shall reap corruption. Per- 
haps we would not be so unwise, so regardless of 
ourselves, of public opinion, as to sow corruption. 
It does not say, if we sow tares we shall reap 
tares. We might never do anything so foolish as 
sow tares. But if we sow nothing, it says, we 
shall reap nothing. If we put nothing into the 
field, we shall take nothing out. If we neglect to 
cultivate in summer, how shall we escape starv- 
ing in winter ? 

Now the Bible raises this question, but does not 
answer it — because it is too obvious to need an- 
swering. How shall we escape if we neglect? 
The answer is, we cannot. In the nature of 
things we cannot. We cannot escape any more 
than a man can escape drowning who falls into 
the sea and has neglected to learn to swim. In 
the nature of things he cannot escape — nor can 
he escape who has neglected the great salvation. 

Now why should such fatal consequences follow 
a simple process like neglect ? The popular im- 
pression is that a man, to be what is called lost, 
must be an open and notorious sinner. He must 
be one who has abandoned all that is good and 
pure in life, and sown to the flesh w^ith all his 
might and main. But this principle goes further. 
It says simply, " If we neglect." Any one may 



96 DEGENERATION. 

see the reason why a notoriously wicked person 
should not escape ; but why should not all the rest 
of us escape ? What is to hinder people who are 
not notoriously wicked escaping — people who 
never sowed anything in particular ? Why is it 
such a sin to sow nothing in particular ? 

There must be some hidden and vital relation 
between these three words, Salvation, Neglect, and 
Escape — some reasonable, essential, and indisso- 
luble connection. Why are these words so linked 
together as to weight this clause with all the au- 
thority and solemnity of a sentence of death ? 

The explanation has partly been given already. 
It lies still further, however, in the meaning of the 
word Salvation. And this, of course, is not at all 
Salvation in the ordinary sense of forgiveness of 
sin. This is one great meaning of Salvation, the 
first and the greatest. But this is spoken to 
people who are supposed to have had this. It is 
the broader word, therefore, and includes not only 
foregiveness of sin, but salvation and deliverance 
from the downward bias of the soul. It takes in 
that whole process of rescue from the power of 
sin and selfishness that should be going on from 
day to day in every human life. We have seen 
that there is a natural principle in man lowering 
him, deadening him, pulling him down by inches 
to the mere animal plane, blinding reason, searing 
conscience, paralj^zing will. This is the active de- 
stroying principal, or Sin. Now to counteract 
this, God has discovered to us another principle 
which will stop this drifting process in the soul, 



DEGENERATION. 97 

f-'-^^r it round, and make it drift the other way. 
' .Is is the active saving principle, or Salvation, 
II g, man find the first of these powers furiously 
at work within him, dragging his whole life down- 
ward to destruction, there is only one way to es- 
cape his fate — to take resolute hold of the upward 
power, and be borne by it to the opposite goal. 
And as this second power is the only one in the 
universe which has the slightest real effect upon 
the first, how shall a man escape if he neglect it ? 
To neglect it is to cut off the only possible chance 
of escape. In declining this he is simply aban- 
doning himself with his eyes open to that other 
and terrible energy which is already there, and 
which, in the natural course of things, is bearing 
him every moment further and further from es- 
cape. 

From the very nature of Salvation, therefore, it 
is plain that the only thing necessary to make it 
of no effect is neglect. Hence the Bible could 
not fail to lay strong emphasis on a word so vital. 
It was not necessary for it to say, how shall we 
escape if we trample upon the great salvation, or 
doubt, or despise, or reject it. A man who has 
been poisoned only need neglect the antidote and 
he will die. It makes no difference whether he 
dashes it on the ground, or pours it out of the 
window, or sets it down by his bedside, and stares 
at it all the time he is dying. He will die just the 
same, whether he destroys it in a passion, or coolly 
refuses to have anything to do with it. And as a 
matter of fact probably most deaths, spiritually, 
7 



98 DEGENERA TION. 

are gradual dissolutions of the last class rather 
than rash suicides of the first. 

This, then, is the effect of neglecting salvation 
from the side of salvation itself; and the conclu- 
sion is that from the very nature of salvation es- 
cape is out of the question. Salvation is a definite 
process. If a man refuse to submit himself to 
that process, clearly he cannot have the benefits 
of it. A8 many as received Him to them gave He 
power to become the sons of God. He does not 
avail himself of this power. It may be mere 
carelessness or apathy. Nevertheless the neglect 
is fatal. He cannot escape because he will not. • 

Turn now to another aspect of the case — to the 
affect upon the soul itself. Neglect does more for 
the soul than make it miss salvation. It despoils 
jt of its capacity for salvation. Degeneration in 
the spiritual sphere involves primarily the impair- 
ing of the faculties of salvation and ultimately the 
loss of them. It really means that the very soul 
itself becomes piecemeal destroyed until the very 
capacity for God and righteousness is gone. 

The soul, in its highest sense, is a vast capacity 
for God. It is like a curious chamber added on 
to being, and somehow involving being, a chamber 
with elastic and contractile walls, which can be 
expanded, with God as its guest, inimitably, but 
which without God shrinks and shrivels until 
every vestige of the Divine is gone, and God's 
image is left without God's Spirit. One cannot 
call what is left a soul; it is a shrunken, useless 
organ, a capacity sentenced to death by disuset 



DEGENERATION. 99 

which droops as a withered hand by the side, and 
cumbers nature like a rotted branch. Nature has 
her revenge upon neglect as well as upon extrav- 
agance. Misuse, with her, is as mortal a sin as 
abuse. 

There are certain burrowing animals — the mole 
for instance— which have taken to spending their 
lives beneath the surface of the ground. And 
Nature has taken her revenge upon them in a 
thoroughly natural way — she has closed up their 
eyes. If they mean to live in darkness, she ar- 
gues, eyes are obviously a superfluous function. 
By neglecting them these animals made it clear 
they do not want them. And as one of Nature's 
:fixed principles is that nothing shall exist in vain, 
the eyes are presently taken away, or reduced to 
a rudimentary state^ There are fishes also which 
have had to pay the same terrible forfeit for hav- 
ing made their abode in dark caverns where eyes 
can never be required. And in exactly, the same 
way the spiritual eye must die and lose its power 
by parely natural law if the soul choose to walk 
in darkness rather than in light. 

This is the meaning of the favorite paradox of 
Christ, " From him that hath not shall be taken 
away even that which he hath; " "take therefore 
the talent from him." The religious faculty is a 
talent, the most splendid and sacred talent we 
possess. Yet it is subject to the natural condi- 
tions and laws. If any man take his talent and 
hide it in a napkin, although it is doing him 
neither harm nor good apparently, God will not 



lOO DEGENERATION. 

allow him to have it. Although it is lying there 
rolled up in the darkness, not conspicuously affect- 
ing any one, still God will not allow him to keep 
it. He will not allow him to keep it any more 
than Nature would allow the fish to keep their 
eyes. Therefore, He says, " take the talent from 
him." And Nature does it. 

This man's crime was simply neglect — " thou 
wicked and slothful servant." It was a wasted 
life — a life which failed in the holy stewardship of 
itself. Such a life is a peril to all who cross its 
path. Degeneration compasses Degeneration. It 
is only a character which is itself developing that 
can aid the Evolution of the world and so fulfil 
the end of life. For this high usury each of our 
lives, however small may seem our capital, was 
given us by God. And it is just the men whose 
capital seems small who need to choose the best 
investments. It is significant that it was the man 
who had only one talent who was guilty of ne- 
glecting it. Men with ten talents, men of large 
gifts and burning energies, either direct their 
powers nobly and usefully, or misdirect them irre- 
trievably. It is those who belong to the rank and 
file of life who need this warning most. Others 
have an abundant store and sow to the spirit or 
the flesh with a lavish hand. But we, with our 
small gift, what boots our sowing? Our tempta- 
tion as ordinary men is to neglect to sow at all. 
The interest on our talent would be so small that 
we excuse ourselves with the reflection that it is 
not worth while. 



DEGENERATION. lOI 

It is no objection to all this to say that we are 
unconscious of this neglect or misdirection of our 
powers. That is the darkest feature in the case. 
If there were uneasiness there might be hope. If 
there were, somewhere about our soul, a some- 
thing which was not gone to sleep like all the rest ; 
if there were a contending force anywhere ; if we 
would let even that work instead of neglecting it, 
it would gain strength from hour to hour, and 
waken up one at a time each torpid and dishon- 
ored faculty till our whole nature became aliye 
with strivings against self, and every avenue was 
open wide for God. But the apathy, the numb- 
ness of the soul, what can be said of such a symp- 
tom but that it means the creeping on of death? 
There are accidents in which the victims feel no 
pain. They are well and strong they think. But 
they are dying. And if you ask the surgeon by 
their side what makes him give this verdict, he 
will say it is this numbness over the frame which 
tells how some of the parts have lost already the 
very capacity for life. 

Nor is it the least tragic accompaniment of this 
process that its effects may even be concealed 
from others. The soul undergoing Degeneration, 
surely by some arrangement with Temptation 
planned in the uttermost hell, possesses the power 
of absolute secrecy. When all within is festering 
decay and rottenness, a Judas, without anonjaly, 
may kiss his Lord. This invisible consumption, 
like its fell analogue in the natural world, may 
even keep its victim beautiful while slowly slaying 



1 02 DEGENERA TION. 

it. When one examines the little Crustacea which 
have inhabited for centuries the lakes of the 
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, one is at first as- 
tonished to find these animals apparently endowed 
with perfect eyes. The pallor of the head is 
broken by two black pigment specks, conspicu- 
ous indeed as the only bits of color on the whole 
blanched body ; and these, even to the casual ob- 
server, certainly represent well-defined organs of 
vision. But what do they with eyes in these 
Stygian waters? There reigns an everlasting 
night. Is the law for once at fault? A swift in- 
cision with the scalpel, a glance with a lens, and 
their secret is betrayed. The eyes are a mockery. 
Externally they are organs of vision — the front 
of the eye is perfect; behind, there is nothing 
but a mass of ruins. The optic nerve is a 
shrunken, atrophied and insensate thread. These 
animals have organs of vision, and yet they have 
no vision. They have eyes, but they see not. 

Exactly what Christ said of men : They had 
eyes, but no vision. And the reason is the same. 
It is the simplest problem of natural history. The 
Crustacea of the Mammoth Cave have chosen to 
abide in darkness. Therefore they have become 
fitted for it. By refusing to see they have waived 
the right to see. And Nature has grimly hu- 
mored them. Nature had to do it by her very 
constitution. It is her defence against waste 
that decay of faculty should immediately follow 
disuse of function. He that hath ears to hear, 
he whose ears have not degenerated, let him hear. 



DEGENERA TION. 1 03 

Men tell us sometimes there is no such thing as 
an atheist. There must be. There are some 
men to whom it is true that there is no God. 
They cannot see God because they have no eye. 
They have only an abortive organ, atrophied by 
neglect. 

All this, it is commonplace again to insist, is 
not the effect of neglect when we die, but while 
we live. The process is in full career and opera- 
tion now. It is useless projecting consequences 
into the future when the effects may be measured 
now. We are always practicing these little de- 
ceptions upon ourselves, postponing the conse- 
quences of our misdeeds as if they were to cul- 
minate some other day about the time of death. 
It makes us sin with a lighter hand to run an ac- 
count with retribution, as it were, and delay the 
reckoning time with God. But every day is a 
reckoning day. Every soul is a Book of Judg- 
ment, and Nature, as a recording angel, marks 
there every sin. As all will be judged by the 
great Judge some day, all are judged by Nature 
now. The sin of yesterday, as part of its pen- 
alty, has the sin of to-day. All follow us in 
silent retribution on our past, and go with us to 
the grave. We cannot cheat Nature. No 
sleight-of-heart can rob religion of a present, the 
immortal nature of a notv. The poet sings — 

"I looked behind to find my past, 
And lo, it had gone before." 

But no, not all. The unforfriven sins are not 



1 04 DE GENERA TION. 

away in keeping somewhere to be let loose upon 
us when we die ; they are here, within us, now. 
To-day brings the resurrection of their past, to- 
morrow of to-day. And the powers of sin, to the 
exact strength that we have developed them, 
nearing their dreadful culmination with every 
breath we draw, are here, within us, now. The 
souls of some men are already honeycombed 
through and through with the eternal conse- 
quences of neglect, so that taking the natural 
and rational view of their case ju8t now^ it is 
simply inconceivable that there is any escape just 
now. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the 
hands of the living God ! A fearful thing even 
if, as the philosopher tells us, ''the hands of the 
Living God are the Laws of Nature." 

Whatever hopes of a " heaven " a neglected 
soul may have, can be shown to be an ignorant 
and delusive dream. How is the soul to escape 
to heaven if it has neglected for a lifetime the 
means of escape from the world and self? And 
where is the capacity for heaven to come from if 
it be not developed on earth? Where, indeed, is 
even the smallest spiritual appreciation of God 
and heaven to come from when so little of spirit- 
uality has ever been known or manifested here ? 
If every God ward aspiration of the soul has been 
allowed to become extinct, and every inlet that 
was open to heaven to be choked, and ever}^ tal- 
ent for religious love and trust to have been per- 
sistently neglected and ignored, where are the 
faculties to come from that would even find the 



DEGENERATION. 105 

faintest relish in such things as God and heaven 
give ? 

These three words, Salvation, Escape, and 
Neglect, then, are not casually, but organically 
and necessarily connected. Their doctrine is 
scientific, not arbitrary. Escape means nothing 
more than the gradual emergence of the higher 
being from the lower, and nothing less. It means 
the gradual putting off of all that cannot enter 
the higher state, or heaven, and simultaneously 
the putting on of Christ. It involves the slow 
completing of the soul and the development of 
the capacity for God. 

Should any one object that from this scientific 
standpoint the opposite of salvation is annihila- 
tion, the answer is at hand. From this standpoint 
there is no such word. 

If, then, escape is to be open to us, it is not to 
come to us somehow, vaguely. We are not to 
hope for anything startling or mysterious. It is a 
definite opening along certain lines which are defi- 
nitely marked by God, which begin at the Cross 
of Christ, and lead direct to Him. Each man in 
the silence of his own soul must work out this 
salvation for himself with fear and trembling — 
with fear, realizing the momentous issues of his 
task ; with trembling, lest before the tardy work be 
done the voice of Death should summon him to stop. 

What these lines are may, in closing, be in- 
dicated in a word. The true problem of the 
spiritual life may be said to be, do the opposite of 
Neglect. Whatever this is, do it, and you shall 



I06 DEGENERATION, 

escape. It will just mean that you are so to cul- 
tivate the soul that all its powers will open out to 
God, and in beholding God be drawn away from 
sin. The idea really is to develop among the ruins 
of the old a new ''creature" — a new creature 
which, while the old is suffering Degeneration 
from Neglect, is gradually to unfold, to escape 
away and develop on spiritual lines to spiritual 
beauty and strength. And as our conception of 
spiritual being must be taken simply from natural 
being, our ideas of the lines along which the new 
religious nature is to run must be borrowed from 
the known lines of the old. 

There is for example, a Sense of Sight in the 
religious nature. Neglect this, leave it unde- 
veloped, and you never miss it. You simply see 
nothing. But develop it and you see God. And 
the line along which to develop it is known to us. 
Become pure in heart. The pure in heart shall 
see God. Here, then, is one opening for soul-cul- 
ture — the avenue through purity of heart to the 
spiritual seeing of God. 

Then there is a Sense of Sound. Neglect this, 
leave it undeveloped, and you never miss it. You 
simply hear nothing. Develop it, and you hear 
God. And the line along which to develop it is 
known to us. Obey Christ. Become one of 
Christ's flock. " The sheep hear His voice, and 
He calleth them by name." Here, then, is anothec 
opportunity for the culture of the soul — a gate- 
way through the Shepherd's fold to hear the Shep- 
herd's voice. 




CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 



DEGENERATION. 10/ 

And there is a Sense of Touch to be acquired — 
such a sense as the woman had who touched the 
hem of Christ's garment, that wonderful electric 
touch called faith, which moves the very heart of 
God. 

And there is a Sense of Taste — a spiritual 
hunger after God ; a something within which 
tastes and sees that He is good. And there is the 
Talent for Inspiration. Neglect that, and all the 
scenery of the spiritual world is flat and frozen. 
But cultivate it, and it penetrates the whole soul 
with sacred fire, and illuminates creation with 
God. And last of all there is the great capacity 
for Love, even for the love of God — the expand- 
ing capacity for feeling more and more its lieight 
and depth, its length and breadth. Till that is 
felt no man can really understand that word, " so 
great salvation,'^ for what is its measure but that 
other "so" of Christ — God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son ? Verily, 
how shall we escape if we neglect that?^ 

^ For the scientific basis of this spiritual law the fol- 
lowing works may be consulted : 

*' The Origin of Species." By Charles Darwin, F.R.S. 
London : John Murra3^ 1872.*^ 

** Degeneration." By E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S, 
London : Macmillan. 1880. 

" Der Ursprung der Wirbelthiere und das Princip des 
Functions- Wechsels." Dr. A. Dorhn. Leipzig: 1875. 

** Lessons from Nature." By St. George Mivart, F. 
R.S. London : John Murray. 1876. 

"The Natural Conditions of Existence as they Affect 
Animal Life." Karl Semper. London : C. Kegan Paul 
& Co. 138... 



GROWTH. 



" Is not the evidence of Ease on the very front of all the greatest 
works in existence ? Do they not say plainly to us, not ' there has 
been a great effort here,^ hut ' there has been a great power here ? ' 
It is not the weariness of mortality hut the strength of divinity, 
which we have to recognize in all mighty things ; and that is just 
what we now never recognize, hut think that we are to do great things 
hy help of iron hars and perspiration ; alas ! we shall do nothing 
UmI way, hut lose some pounds of our own weight." 

KUSKIN. 



GROWTH. 

"Consider the lilies of the field how they grow.**— 
The Sermon on the Mount. 

" Nunquam aliud natura, aliud sapientia dicit."^ 
Juvenal. 

What gives the peculiar point to this object- 
lesson from the lips of Jesus is, that He not only 
made the illustration, but made the lilies. It is 
like an inventor describing his own machine. 
He made the lilies and He made me — both on the 
same broad principle. Both together, man and 
flower. He planted deep in the Providence of 
God; but as men are dull at studying themselves 
He points to this companion-phenomenon to teach 
us how to live a free and natural life, a life which 
God will unfold for us, without our anxiety, as 
He unfolds the flower. For Christ's words are 
not a general appeal to consider nature. Men 
are not to consider the lilies simply to admire^ 
their beauty, to dream over the delicate strength 
and grace of stem and leaf. The point they were 
to consider was Jiow they grew — how without 
anxiety or care the flower woke into loveliness^ 
how without weaving these leaves were woven, 
how without toiling these complex tissues spun 
themselves, and how without any effort or fric- 
tion the whole slowly came ready-made from the 

(111) 



112 GROWTH. 



loom of God in its more than Solomon-like glory. 
" So," He says, making the application beyond dis- 
pute, "you care-worn, anxious men must grow. 
You, too, need take no thought for your life, what 
ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or what ye 
shall put on. For if God so clothed the grass of 
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast 
Unto the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, 
Oyeof little faith?" 

This nature-lesson was a great novelty in its 
day ; but all men now who have even a " little 
faith " have learned this Christian secret of a 
composed life. Apart even from the parable of 
the lily, the failures of the past have taught most 
of us the folly of disquieting ourselves in vain, 
and we have given up the idea that by taking 
thought we can add a cubit to our stature. 

But no sooner has our life settled down to this 
calm trust in God than a new and graver anxiety 
begins. This time it is not for the body we are 
in travail, but for the soul. For the temporal life 
we have considered the lilies, but how is the 
spiritual life to grow? How are we to become 
better men ? How are we to grow in grace ? By 
what thought shall we add the cubits to the 
spiritual stature and reach the fullness of the Per- 
fect Man ? And because we know ill how to do 
this, the old anxiety comes back again and our 
inner life is once more an agony of conflict and 
remorse. After all, we have but transferred our 
anxious thoughts from the body to the soul. 
Our efforts after Christian growth seem only a 



GROWTH, 113 

succession of failures, and instead of rising into 
the beauty of holiness our life is a daily heart- 
break and humiliation. 

Now the reason of this is very plain. We have 
forgotten the parable of the lily. Violent efforts 
to grow are right in earnestness, but wholly wrong 
in principle. There is but one principle of growth 
both for the natural and spiritual, for animal and 
plant, for body and soul. For all growth is an 
organic thing. And the principle of growing in 
grace is once more this, " Consider the lilies how 
they growT 

In seeking to extend the analogy from the body 
to the soul there are two things about the lilies' 
growth, two characteristics of all growth, on 
which one must fix attention. These are, — 

First, Spontaneousness. 

Second, Mysteriousness. 

I. Spontaneousness. There are three lines along 
which one may seek for evidence of the spontan- 
eousness of growth. The first is Science. And 
the argument here could not be summed up bet- 
ter than in the words of Jesus. The lilies grow, 
He says, of themselves ; they toil not, neither do 
they spin. They grow, that is, automatically, 
spontaneously, without trying, without fretting, 
without thinking. Applied in any direction, to 
plant, to animal, to the body or to the soul this 
law holds. A boy grows, for example, without 
trying. One or two simple conditions are fulfilled, 
and the growth goes on. He thinks probably as 
little about the condition as about the result ; 1?« 



114 GROWTH. 



fulfills the conditions by habit, the result follows 
by nature. Both processes go steadily on from 
year to year apart from himself and all but in 
spite of himself. One would never think of tell- 
ing a boy to grow. A doctor has no prescription for 
growth. He can tell me how growth may be 
stunted or impaired, but the process itself is 
recognized as beyond control — one of the few, 
and therefore very significant, things which Na- 
ture keeps in . her own hands. No physician of 
souls, in like manner, has any prescription for 
spiritual growth. It is the question he is most 
often asked and most often answers wrongly. 
He may prescribe more earnestness, more prayer, 
more self-denial, or more Christian work. These 
are prescriptions for something, but not for growth. 
Not that they may not encourage growth ; but the 
soul grows as the lily grows, without trying, with- 
out fretting, without ever thinking. Manuals of 
devotion, with complicated rules for getting on in 
the Christian life, would do well sometimes to re- 
turn to the simplicity of nature ; and earnest souls 
who are attempting sanctification by struggle in- 
. stead of sanctification b}^ faith might be spared 
much humiliation by learning the botany of the 
Sermon on the Mount. There can indeed be no 
other principle of growth than this. It is a vital 
act. And to try to mak& a thing grow is as ab« 
surd as to help the tide to come in or the sun rise. 
Another argument for the spontaneousness of 
]growth is universal experience. A boy nut only 
grows without trying, but he cannot grow if \x9 



Growth. 115 



tries. No man by taking thought has ever added 
a cubit to his stature ; nor has any man by mere 
working at his soul ever approached nearer to the 
stature of the Lord Jesus. The stature of the 
Lord Jesas was not itself reached by work, and 
he who thinks to approach its mystical height by 
anxious effort is really receding from it. Christ's 
life unfolded itself from a divine germ, planted 
centrally in His nature, which grew as naturally 
as a flower from a bud. This flower may be imi- 
tated*; but one can always tell an artificial 
flower. The human form may be copied in wax, 
yet somehow one never fails to detect the differ- 
ence. And this precisely is the difl'erence between 
a native growth of Christian principle and the 
moral copy of it. The one is natural, the other 
mechanical. The one is a growth, the other 
an accretion. Now this, according to modern 
biology, is the fundamental distinction between 
the living and the not living, between an organ- 
ism and a crystal. The living organism grows, 
the dead crystal increases. The first grows vitally 
from within, the last adds new particles from the 
outside. The whole difference between the Chris- 
tian and the moralist lies here. The Christian 
works from the centre, the moralist from the cir- 
cumference. The one is an organism, in the cen- 
tre of which is planted by the living God a living 
germ. The other is a crystal, very beautiful it 
may be ; but only a crystal — it wants the vital 
principle of growth. 

And one sees here also, what is sometimes very 



kl6 GRQWTH. 



difficult to see, why salvation in the first instance 
is never connected directly with morality. The 
reason is not that salvation does not demand mor- 
ality, but that it demands so much of it that the 
moralist can never reach up to it. The end of 
Salvation is perfection, the Christlike mind, char- 
acter and life. Morality is on the wa}^ to this' 
perfection ; it may go a considerable distance to- 
wards it, but it can never reach it. Only Life can 
do that. It requires something with enormous 
power of movement, of growth, of overcoming 
obstacles, to attain the perfect. Therefore the 
man who has within himself this great formative 
agent. Life, is nearer the end than the man who 
has morality alone. The latter can never reach 
perfection ; the former mu^t. For the Life must 
develop out according to its type ; and being a 
germ of the Christ-like, it must unfold into a 
Christ. Morality, at the utmost, only develops 
the character in one or two directions. It may 
perfect a single virtue here and there, but it can- 
not perfect all. And especially it fails always to 
give that rounded harmony of parts, that perfect 
tune to the whole orchestra, which is the marked 
characteristic of life. Perfect life is not merely 
the possessing of perfect functions, but of perfect 
functions perfectly adjusted to each other and all 
conspiring to a single result, the perfect working 
of the whole organism. It is not said that the 
character will develop in all its fullness in this 
life. That were a time too short for an Evolu- 
tion so magnificentc In this world only the corn- 



GROWTH, 117 



less ear is seen ; sometimes only the small yet still 
prophetic blade. The sneer at the godly man for 
his imperfections is ill-judged. A blade is a small 
thing. At first it grows very near the earth. It 
is often soiled and crushed and downtrodden. 
But it is a living thing. That great dead stone 
beside it is more imposing ; only it will never be 
anything else than a stone. But this small blade 
— it doth not yet appear ivliat it shall he. 

Seeing now that Growth can only be synony- 
mous with a living automatic process, it is all but 
superfluous to seek a third line of argument from 
Scripture. Growth there is always described in 
the language of physiology. The regenerate soul 
is a new creature. The Christian is a new man 
in Christ Jesus. He adds the cubits to his stat- 
ure just as the old man does. He is rooted and 
built up in Christ ; he abides in the vine, and so 
abiding, not toiling or spinning, brings forth fruit. 
The Christian in short, like the poet, is born not 
made ; and the fruits of his character are not 
manufactured things but living things, things 
which have grown from the secret germ, the fruits 
of the living Spirit. They are not the produce 
of this climate, but exotics from a sunnier land. 

II. But, secondly, besides this Spontaneousness 
there is this other great characteristic of Growth 
— Mysteriousness. Upon this quality depends 
jhe fact, probabl}^ that so few men ever fathom 
its real character. We are most unspiritual al- 
ways in dealing with the simplest spiritual things. 
A lih^ grows mysteriously, pushing up i^ solid 



Il8 GROWTH. 



weight of stem and leaf in the teeth of gravity. 
Shaped into beauty by secret and invisible fingers, 
the flower develops we know not how. But we 
do not wonder at it. Every day the thing is 
done ; it is Nature, it is God. We are spiritual 
enough at least to understand that. But when 
the soul rises slowly above the world, pushing up 
its delicate virtues in the teeth of sin, shaping it- 
self mysteriously into the image of Christ, we 
deny that the power is not of man. A strong 
will, we say, a high ideal, the reward of virtue, 
Christian influence, — these will account for it. 
Spiritual character is merely the product of anx- 
ious work, self-command, and self-denial. We 
allow, that is to say, a miracle to the lily, but 
none to the man. The lily may grow ; the man 
must fret and toil and spin. 

Now grant for a moment that by hard work and 
self-restraint a man may attain to a very high 
character. It is not denied that this can be done. 
But what is denied is that this is growth, and that 
this process is Christianity. The fact that you 
can account for it proves that it is not growth. 
For growth is mysterious ; the peculiarity of it is 
that you cannot account for it. Mysteriousness, 
as Mozley has well observed, is " the test of spir- 
itual birth." And this was Christ's test. " The 
wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the 
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of 
the Spirit.^"* The test of spirituality is that you 
cannot 'tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. 



GROWTH. 119 



If you can tell, if you can account for it on phil- 
osophical principles, on the doctrine of influence, 
on strength of will, on a favorable environment, 
it is not growth. It may be so far a success, it 
may be a perfectly honest, even remarkable, and 
praiseworthy imitation, but it is not the real 
thing. The fruits are wax, the flowers artificitil 
— ^you can tell whence it cometh and whither it 
goeth. 

The conclusion is, then, that the Christian is a 
unique phenomenon. You cannot account for 
him. And if you could he would not be a Chris- 
tian. Mozley has drawn the two characters for 
us in graphic words : " Take an ordinary man of 
the world — what he thinks and what he does, his 
whole standard of duty is taken from the society 
in which he lives. It is a borrowed standard : he 
is as good as other people are ; he does, in the 
way of duty, what is generally considered proper 
and becoming among those with Avhom his lot is 
thrown. He reflects established opinion on such 
points. He follows its lead. His aims and ob- 
jects in life again are taken from the world around 
him, and from its dictation. What it considers 
honorable, worth having, advantageous and good, 
he thinks so too and pursues it. His motives all 
come from a visible quarter. It would be absurd 
to say that there is any mystery in such a charac- 
ter as this, because it is formed from a known ex- 
ternal influence — the influence of social opinion 
;;nd the voice of the vforld. ' Whence such a 
character cometh ' we see ; we venture to say that 



120 GROWTH. 



the source and origin of it is open and palpable, 
and we know it just as we know the pl^ysical 
causes of many common facts." 

Then there is the other. " There is a certain 
character and disposition of mind of which it is 
true to say that ' thou canst not tell whence it 
Cometh or whither it goeth.' . . . There are 
those who stand out from among the crowd, which 
reflects merely the atmosphere of feeling and 
standard of society around it, with an impress 
upon them which bespeaks a heavenly birth. 
. . . Now, when we see one of those charac- 
ters, it is a question Avhich we ask ourselves. How 
has the person become possessed of it*^ Has he 
caught it from society around him? That can- 
not be, because it is wholly different from that of 
the world around him. Has he caught it from 
the inoculation of crowds and masses, as the mere 
religious zealot catches his character ? That can- 
not be either, for the type is altogether different 
from that which masses of men, under enthusias- 
tic impulses, exhibit. There is nothing gregari- 
ous in this character; it is the individual's own; 
it is not borrowed, it is not a reflection of any^ 
fashion or tone of the world outside ; it rises up 
from some fount within, and it is a creation of 
which the text says. We know not whence it 
Cometh." ^ 

Now we have all met these two characters — = 
the one eminently respectable, upright, virtuous, 

^ University Sermons, pp. 234-241. 



GROWTH. 121 

a trifle cold perhaps, and generally, when critic- 
ally examined, revealing somehow the mark of the 
tool ; the other with God's breath still upon it, an 
inspiration; not more virtuous, but differently 
virtuous ; not more humble, but different, wear- 
ing the meek and quiet spirit artlessly as to the 
manner born. The other-worldliness of such a 
character is the thing that strikes you ; you are 
not prepared for what it will do or say or become 
next, for it moves from a far-off centre, and in 
spite of its transparency and sweetness, that pres- 
ence fills you always with awe. A man never 
feels the discord of his own life, never hears the 
jar of the machinery by which he tries to manu- 
facture his own good points, till he has stood in 
the stillness of such a presence. Then he dis- 
cerns the difference between growth and work. 
He has considered the lilies, how they grow. 

We have now seen that spiritual growth is a 
process maintained and secured by a spontaneous 
and mysterious inward principle. It is a spontan- 
eous principle even in its origin, for it bloweth 
where it listeth ; mysterious in its operation, for 
we can never tell whence it cometh ; obscure in 
its destination, for we cannot tell whence it goeth= 
The whole process therefore transcends us ; we do 
jiot work, we are taken in hand — "it is God which 
worketh in us, both to will and to do of His good 
pleasure." We do not plan — we are " created in 
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath 
before ordained that we should walk in them." 

There may be an obvious objection to all this. 



122 GROWTH. 



It takes away all conflict from the Christian life ? 
It makes man, does it not, mere cla}^ in the hands 
of the potter ? It crushes the old character to 
make a new one, and destroys man's responsibility 
for his own soul ? 

Now we are not concerned here in once more 
striking the time-honored " balance between faith 
and works." We are considering how lilies grow, 
and in a specific connection, namely, to discover 
the attitude of mind w^hich the Christian should 
preserve regarding his spiritual growth. That 
attitude, primarily, is to be free from care. We 
are not lodging a plea for inactivity of the spirit- 
ual energies, but for the tranquillity of the spirit- 
ual mind. Christ's protest is not against work, 
but against anxious thought ; and rather, there- 
fore, than complement the lesson b}^ showing the 
other side, we take the risk of still further ex- 
tending the plea in the original direction. 

What is the relation, to recur again to analogy, 
between growth and work in a boy ? Consciously, 
there is no relation at all. The boy never thinks 
of connecting his work with his growth. Work 
in fact is one thing and growth another, and it is 
so in the spiritual life. If it be asked therefore, 
Is the Christian wrong in these ceaseless and 
agonizing efforts after growth? the answer is. Yes, 
he is quite wrong, or at least, he is quite mistaken. 
When a boy takes a meal or denies himself indi- 
gestible things, he does not say, " All this will 
minister to my growth; " or when he runs a race 
he does not say, " This will help the next cubit of 



GROWTH. 123 

mj stature." It may or it may not be true that 
these things will help his stature, but, if he thinks 
of this, his idea of growth is morbid. And this 
is the point we are dealing with. His anxiety 
here is altogether irrelevant and superfluous. 
Nature is far more bountiful than we think. When 
she gives us energy she asks none of it back to ex- 
pend on our own growth. She will attend to 
that. " Give your work," she says, " and your 
anxiety to others; trust me to add the cubits to 
your stature." If God is adding to our spiritual 
stature, unfolding the new nature within us, it is 
a mistake to keep twitching at the petals with our 
coarse fingers. We must seek to let the Creative 
Hand alone. "It is God which giveth the in- 
crease." Yet we never know how little we have 
learned of the fundamental principle of Chris- 
tianity till we discover how much we are all bent 
on supplementing God's free grace. If God is 
spending work upon a Christian, let him be still 
and know that it is God. And if he wants work, 
he will find it there — in the being still. 

Not that there is no work for him who would 
grow, to do. There is work, and severe work, — 
work so great that the worker deserves to have 
himself relieved of all that is superfluous during 
his task. If the amount of energy lost in trying 
to grow were spent in fulfilling rather the condi- 
tions of growth, we should have many more cubits 
to show for our stature. It is with these conditions 
that the personal work of the Christian is chiefly 
concerned. Observe for a moment what they are. 



124 GROWTH. 



and their exact relation. For its growth the plant 
needs heat, light, air, and moisture. A man, 
therefore, must go in search of these, or their 
spiritual equivalents, and this is his work ? By 
no means. The Christian's work is not yet. Does 
the plant go in search of its conditions? Nay, 
the conditions come to the plant. It no more 
manufactures the heat, light, air, and moisture, 
than it manufactures its own stem. It finds them 
all around it in Nature. It simply stands still 
with its leaves spread out in unconscious prayer, 
and Nature lavishes upon it these and all other 
bounties, bathing it in sunshine, pouring the nour- 
ishing air over and over it, reviving it graciously 
with its nightly dew. Grace, too, is as free as the 
air. The Lord God is a Sun. He is as the Dew 
to Israel. A man has no more to manufacture 
these than he has to manufacture his own soul. 
He stands surrounded by them, bathed in tliem, 
beset behind and before by them. He Jives and 
moves and has his being in them. How then shall 
he go in search of them ? Do not they rather go 
in search of him ? Does he not feel how they 
press themselves upon him ? Does he not know 
how unweariedly they appeal to him ? Has he 
not heard how they are sorrowful when he will 
not have them ? His work, therefore, is not yet. 
The voice still says, " Be still." 

The conditions of growth, then, and the inward 
principle of growth being both supplied by Na- 
ture, the thing man has to do, the little junction 
left for him to complete, is to apply the one to the 



GROWTH. 125 



other. He manufactures nothing ; he earns noth- 
ing ; he need be anxious for nothing ; his one duty 
is to he in these conditions, to abide in them, to 
allow grace to play over him, to be still therein 
and know that this is God. 

The conflict begins and prevails in all its life- 
long agony the moment a man forgets this. He 
struggles to grow himself instead of struggling to 
get back again into position. He makes the 
church into a workshop when God meant it to be 
a beautiful garden. And even in his closet, where 
only should reign silence — a silence as of the 
mountains whereon the lilies grow — is heard the 
roar and tumult of machinery. True, a man will 
often have to wrestle with his God — but not for 
growth. The Christian life is a composed life. 
The Gospel is Pea^',e. Yet the most anxious 
people in the world are Christians — Christians 
who misunderstand the nature of growth. Life 
is a perpetual self-condemning because they are 
not growing. And the effect is not only the loss 
of tranquillity to the individual. The energies 
which are meant to be spent on the work of 
Christ are consumed in the soul's own fever. So 
long as the Church's activities are spent on grow- 
ing there is nothing to spare for the world. A 
soldier's time is not spent in earning the money 
to buy his armor, in finding food and raiment, in 
seeking shelter. His king provides these things 
that he may be the more at liberty to fight his 
battles. So, for the soldier of the Cross all is 



126 GROWTH. 



provided. His Government has planned to leave 
him free for the Kingdom's work. 

The problem of the Christian life finally is sim- 
plified to this — man has but to preserve the right- 
attituded. To abide in Christ, to be in position, 
that is all. Much work is done on board a ship 
crossing the Atlantic. Yet none of it is spent on 
making the ship go. The sailor but harnesses his 
vessel to the wind. He puts his sail and rudder 
in position, and lo, the miracle is wrought. So 
everywhere God creates, man utilizes. All the 
work of the world is merely a taking advantage of 
energies already there. ^ God gives the wind, and 
the water, and the heat ; man but puts himself in 
the way of the wind, fixes his water-wheel in the 
way of the river, puts his piston in the way of the 
steam ; and so holding himself in position before 
God's Spirit, all the energies of Omnipotence 
course within his soul. He is like a tree planted 
by a river whose leaf is green and whose fruits 
fail not. Such is the deeper lesson to be learned 
from considering the lily. It is the voice of 
Nature echoing the whole evangel of Jesus, 
** Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." 

> See Bushnell's " New Life.* 



DEATE 



" WJiat could be easier than to form a catena of the most philo- 
sophical defenders of Christianity, who have exhausted language in 
declaring the impotence of the unassisted intellect f Comte has not 
more explicitly enounced the incapacity of man to deal icith the 
Absolute and the Infinite than the whole series of orthodox writers. 
Trust your reason, we have been told till we are tired of the phrase, 
and you will become Atheists or Agnostics. We take you at your 
word; we become Agnostics.''^ 

Leslie Stephen. 



DEATH. 

"To be carnally minded in Death.**— Paul. 
" I do not wonder at what men suffer, but I wonder 
often at what they lose." — Buskin. 

"Death," wrote Faber, "is an imsurveyed 
land, an unarranged Science." Poetry draws near 
Death only to hover over it for a moment and 
withdraw in terror. History knows it simply as a 
universal fact. Philosophy finds it among the 
mysteries of being, the one great mystery of 
being not. All contributions to this dread theme 
are marked by an essential vagueness, and every 
avenue of approach seems darkened by impene- 
trable shadow. 

But modern Biology has found it part of its 
work to push its way into this silent land, and at 
last the world is confronted with a scientific treat- 
ment of Death. Not that much is added to the 
old conception, or much taken from it. What it 
is, this certain Death with its uncertain issues, we 
know as little as before. But we can define more 
clearly and attach a narrower meaning to the 
momentous symbol. 

The interest of the investigation here lies in 

the fact that Death is one of the outstanding 

things in Nature which has an acknowledged 

spiritual equivalent. The prominence of the word 

9 (129) 



130 DEATH. 



in the vocabulary of Revelation cannot be exag- 
gerated. Next to Life the most pregnant symbol 
in religion is its antithesis, Death. And from the 
time that " If thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die " was heard in Paradise, this solemn word has 
been linked with human interests of eternal 
moment. 

Notwithstanding the unparalleled emphasis upon 
this term in the Christian system, there is none 
more feebly expressive to the ordinary mind. That 
mystery which surrounds the word in the natural 
world shrouds only too completely its spiritual 
import. The reluctance which prevents men 
from investigating the secrets of the King of 
Terrors is for a certain length entitled to respect. 
But it has left theology with only the vaguest 
materials to construct a doctrine which, intelli- 
gently enforced, ought to appeal to all men with 
convincing power and lend the most effective 
argument to Christianity. Whatever may have 
been its influence in the past, its threat is gone 
for the modern world. The word has grown 
weak. Ignorance has robbed the Grave of all its 
terror, and platitude despoiled Deatli of its sting. 
Death itself is ethically dead. Which of us, for 
example, enters fully into the meaning of words 
like these ; " She that liveth in pleasure is dead 
while she liveth? " Who allows adequate weight 
to the metaphor in the Pauline phrase, " To be 
carnally minded is Death ; " or in this, " The 
wages of sin is Deaih'l^'' Or what theology has 
translated into the language of human life the 



DEATH. 131 



terrific practical import of "Dead in trespasses 
and sins ? " To seek to make these phrases once 
more real and burning ; to clothe time-worn for- 
mulae with living truth ; to put the deepest ethical 
meaning into the gravest symbol of Nature, and 
fill up with its full consequence the darkest threat 
of Revelation — these are the objects before us 
now. 

What, then, is Death ? Is it possible to define 
it and embody its essential meaning in an intelli- 
gible proposition ? 

The most recent and the most scientific attempt 
to investigate Death we owe to the biological 
studies of Mr. Herbert Spencer. In his search 
for the meaning of Life the word Death crosses 
his path, and he turns aside for a moment to de- 
fine it. Of course what Death is depends upon 
what Life is. Mr. Herbert Spencer's definition of 
Life, it is well known, has been subjected to seri- 
ous criticism. While it has shed much light on 
many of the phenomena of Life, it cannot be 
affirmed that it has taken its place in science as 
the final solution of the fundamental problem of 
biology. No definition of Life, indeed, that has 
yet appeared can be said to be even approximately 
correct. Its mysterious quality evades us ; and 
we have to be content with outward character- 
istics and accompaniments, leaving the thing itself 
an unsolved riddle. At the same time Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer's masterly elucidation of the chief 
phenomena of Life has placed philosophy and 
science under many obligations, and in the para- 



132 DEATH. 



graphs which follow we shall have to incur a 

further debt on behalf of religion. 

The meaning of Death depending, as has been 
said, on the meaning of Life, we must first set 
ourselves to grasp the leading characteristics 
which distinguish living things. To a physiologist 
the living organism is distinguished from the not- 
living by the performance of certain functions. 
These functions are four in number — Assimila- 
tion, Waste, Reproduction, and Growth. Nothing 
could be a more interesting task than to point out 
the co-relatives of these in the spiritual sphere, to 
show in what ways the discharge of these func- 
tions represent the true manifestations of spiritual 
life, and how the failure to perform them consti- 
tutes spiritual Death. But it will bring us more 
directly to the specific subject before us if we fol- 
low rather the newer biological lines of Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer. According to his definition. Life is 
" The definite combination of heterogeneous 
changes, both simultaneous and successive, in cor- 
respondence with external co-existences and se- 
quences," ^ or more shortly " The continuous ad- 
justment of internal relations to external rela- 
tions." - An example or two will render these' 
important statements at once intelligible. 

The essential characteristic of a living organism, 
according to these definitions, is that it is in vital 
connection with its general surroundings. A 

' *' Prirvciples of Biology," vol. i. p. 74. 

2 lua. 



DEATH, 133 



human being, for instance, is in direct contact 
with the earth and air, with all surrounding 
things, with the warmth of tlie sun, with the 
music of birds, with the countless influences and 
activities of nature and of his fellow-men. In 
biological language he is said thus to be " in cor- 
respondence with his environment." He is, that 
is to say, in active and vital connection with 
them, influencing them possibly, but especially 
being influenced by them. Now it is in virtue of 
this correspondence that he is entitled to be called 
alive. So long as he is in correspondence with 
any given point of his environment, he lives. To 
keep up this correspondence is to keep up life. 
If his environment changes he must instantly ad- 
just himself to the change. And he continues 
living only as long as he succeeds in adjusting 
himself to the " simultaneous and successive 
changes in his environment " as these occur. 
What is meant by a change in his environment 
may be understood from an example, which will 
at the same time define more clearly the intimacy 
of the relation between environment and organ- 
ism. Let us take the case of a .civil-servant 
whose environment is a district in India. It is a 
region subject to occasional and prolonged 
droughts resulting in periodical famines. When 
such a period of scarcity arises, he proceeds im- 
mediately to adjust himself to this external 
change. Having the power of locomotion, he may 
remove himself to a more fertile district, or, pos- 
sessing the means of purchase, he may add to his 



134 DEATH, 

old environment by importation the " external re- 
lations " necessary to continued life. But if from 
any cause he fails to adjust himself to the altered 
circumstances, his body is thrown out of corres- 
pondence with his environment, his "internal re- 
lations " are no longer adjusted to his " external 
relations " and his life must cease. 

In ordinary circumstances, and in health, the 
human organism is in thorough correspondence 
with its surroundings , but when any part of the 
organism by disease or accident is thrown out of 
correspondence, it is in that relation dead. 

This Death, this want of correspondence, may 
be either partial or complete. Part of the organ- 
ism may be dead to a part of the environment, or 
the whole to the whole. Thus the victim of 
famine may have a certain number of his corre- 
spondences arrested by the change in his environ- 
ment, but not all. Luxuries which he once en- 
joyed no longer enter the country, animals which 
once furnished his table are driven from it. These 
still exist, but they are beyond the limit of his 
correspondence. In relation to these things, there- 
fore, he is dead. In one sense it might be said 
that it was the environment which played him 
false ; in another, that it was his own organiza- 
tion — that he was unable to adjust himself, or did 
not. But, however caused, he pays the penalty 
with partial Death. 

Suppose next the case of a man who is thrown 
out of correspondence with a part of his environ- 
ment by some physical infirmity. Let it be that 



DEATH. 135 

by disease or accident he has been deprived of the 
use of his ears. The deaf man, in virtue of this 
imperfection, is thrown out of rapport with a 
large and well-defined part of the environment, 
namely, its sounds. With regard to that " exter- 
nal relation," therefore, he is no longer living. 
Part of him may truly be held to be insensible 
or '' Dead." A man who is also blind is thrown 
out of correspondence with another large part of 
his environment. The beauty of sea and sky, the 
forms of cloud and mountain, the features and 
gestures of friends, are to him as if tliey were 
not. They are there, solid and real, but not to 
him ; he is still further " Dead." Next, let it be 
conceived, the subtle finger of cerebral disease 
lays hold of him. His whole brain is affected, 
and the sensory nerves, the medium of communi- 
cation with the environment, cease altogether to 
acquaint him with what is doing in the outside 
world. The outside world is still there, but not 
to him ; he is still further " Dead." And so the 
death of parts goes on. He becomes less and less 
alive. " Were the animal frame not the compli- 
cated machine we have seen it to be, death might 
come as a simple and gradual dissolution, the ' sans 
everything ' being the last stage of the successive 
loss of fundamental powers."^ But finally some 
important part of the mere animal framework 
that remains breaks down. The correlation with 
the other parts is very intimate, and the stoppage 
of correspondence with one means an interfer- 
' Foster's "Physiology," p. 642. 



136 DEATH. 

ence with the work of the rest. Somethirg cen- 
tral has snapped, and all are thrown out of work. 
The lungs refuse to correspond with the air, the 
heart with the blood. There is now no corre- 
spondence whatever with environment — the things 
for it is now a thing, is Dead. 

This then is Death; "part of the framework 
breaks down," " something has snapped " — these 
phrases by which we describe the phases of death 
yield their full meaning. They are different ways 
of saying that " correspondence " has ceased. 
And the scientific meaning of Death now becomes 
clearly intelligible. Dying is that breakdown in 
an organism which throws it out of correspond- 
ence with some necessary part of the environ- 
ment. Death is the result produced, the want of 
correspondence. We do not say that this is all 
that is involved. But this is the root idea of 
Death — Failure to adjust internal relations to ex- 
ternal relations, failure to repair the broken in- 
ward connection sufficiently to enable it to corre- 
spond again with the old surroundings. These 
preliminary statements may be fitly closed with 
the words of Mr. Herbert Spencer: "Death by 
natural decay occurs because in old age the rela- 
tions between assimilation, oxidation, and genesis 
of force going on in the organism gradually fall 
out of correspondence with the relations between 
oxygen and food and absorption of heat by the 
environment. Death from disease arises either 
when the organism is congenitally defective in its 
power to balance the ordinary external actions by 



DEATH, 137 



the ordinary internal actions, or when there has 
taken place some unusual external action to which 
there was no answering internal action. Death 
by accident implies some neighboring mechanical 
changes of which the causes are either unnoticed 
from inattention, or are so intricate that their re- 
sults cannot be foreseen, and consequently certain 
relations in the organism are not adjusted to the 
relations in the environment." ^ 

With the help of these plain biological terms 
we may now proceed to examine the parallel phe- 
nomenon of Death in the spiritual world. The 
factors with which we have to deal are two in 
number as before — Organism and Environment. 
The relation between them may once more be de- 
nominated by " correspondence." And the truth 
to be emphasized resolves itself into this, that 
Spiritual Death is a want of correspondence be- 
tween the organism and the spiritual environ- 
ment. 

What is the spiritual environment? This term 
obviously demands some further definition. For 
Death is a relative term. And before we can de- 
fine Death in the spiritual world we must first ap- 
prehend the particular relation with reference to 
which the expression is to be employed. We 
shall best reach the nature of this relation by 
considering for a moment the subject of environ- 
ment generally. By the natural environment we 
mean the entire surroundings of the natural man, 
the entire external world in which he lives and 
» Op, cit., pp. 88, 89. 



138 DEATH. 



moves and has his being. It is not involved in 

the idea that either with all or part of this envi- 
ronment he is in immediate correspondence. 
Whether he correspond with it or not, it is there. 
There is in fact a conscious environment and an 
environment of which he is not conscious ; and it , 
must be borne in mind that the conscious environ- 
ment is not all the environment that is. All that 
surrounds him, all that environs him, conscious or 
unconscious, is environment. The moon and 
stars are part of it, though in the daytime .he may 
not see them. The polar regions are parts of it, 
though he is seldom aware of their influence. In 
its widest sense environment simply means all else 
that is. 

Now it will next be manifest that different or- 
ganisms correspond with this environment in vary- 
ing degrees of completeness or incompleteness. 
At the bottom of the biological scale we find or- 
ganisms which have only the most limited corres- 
pondence with their surroundings. A tree, for 
example, corresponds with the soil about its stem, 
with the sunlight, and with the air in contact with 
its leaves. But it is shut off by its comparatively 
low development from a whole world to which 
higher forms of life have additional access. The 
want of locomotion alone circumscribes most seri- 
ously its area of correspondence, so that to a 
large part of surrounding nature it may truly be 
said to be dead. So far as consciousness is con- 
cerned, we should be justified indeed in saying 
that it was not alive at -all. The murmur of the 




-y ?^M 



Natural Law 3 






HERBERT SPENCER. 



DEATH. 139 



stream which bathes its roots affects it not. The 
marvellous insect-life beneath its shadow excites 
in it no wonder. The tender maternity of the 
bird which has its nest among its leaves stirs no 
responsive sympathy. It cannot correspond with 
those things. To stream and insect and bird it is 
insensible, torpid, dead. For this is Death, this 
irresponsiveness. 

The bird, again, which is higher in the scale of 
life, corresponds with a wider environment. The 
stream is real to it, and the insect. It knows 
what lies behind the hill ; it listens to the love- 
song of its mate. And to much besides beyond 
the simple world of the tree this higher organism 
is alive. The bird we should say is more living 
than the tree ; it has a correspondence with a 
larger area of environment. But this bird-life is 
not yet the highest life. Even within the im- 
mediate bird-environment there is much to which 
the bird must still be held to be dead. Introduce 
a higher organism, place man himself within this 
same environment, and see how much more living 
he is. A hundred things which the bird never 
saw in insect, stream, and tree appeal to him. 
Each single sense has something to correspond 
with. Each faculty finds an appropriate exercise. 
Man is a mass of correspondences, and because of 
these, because he is alive to countless objects and 
influences to which lower organisms are dead, he 
is the most living of all creatures. 

The relativity of Death will now have become 
sufficiently obvious. Man being left out of ao- 
F 



140 DEATH. 

count, all organisms are seen as it were to be 
partly living and partly dead. The tree, in cor- 
respondence with a narrow area of environment, 
is to that extent alive ; to all beyond, to the all 
but infinite area beyond, it is dead. A still wider 
portion of this vast area is the possession of the 
insect and the bird. Their's also, nevertheless, is 
but a little world, and to an immense further area 
insect and bird are dead. All organisms/ likewise 
are living and dead^living to all within the cir- 
cumference of their correspondences, dead to all 
beyond. As we rise in the scale of life, however, 
it will be observed that the sway of Death is grad- 
ually weakened. More and more of the environ- 
ment becomes accessible as we ascend, and the 
domain of life in this way slowly extends in ever- 
widening circles. But until man appears there is 
no organism to correspond with the whole en- 
vironment. Till then the outermost circles have 
no correspondents. To the inhabitants of the 
innermost spheres they are as if they, were not. 

Now follows a momentous question. Is man in 
correspondence with the whole environment? 
When we reach the highest living organism, is 
the final blow dealt to the kingdom of Death? 
Has the last acre of the infinite area been taken 
in by his finite faculties? Is his conscious en- 
vironment the whole environment? Or is there, 
among these outermost circles, one which with 
his multitudinous correspondences he fails to 
reach ? If so, this is Death. The question of 
Life or Death to him is the question of the amount 



DEATH. 141 



of remaining environment he is able to compass. 
If there be one circle or one segment of a circle 
which he yet fails to reach, to correspond with, to 
know, to be influenced by, he is, with regard to 
that circle, or segment, dead. 

When then, practically, is the state of the case? 
Is man in correspondence with the whole environ- 
ment or he is not? There is but one answer. 
He is not. Of men generally it cannot be said 
that they are in living -contact with that part of 
the environment which is called the spiritual 
world. In introducing this new term spiritual 
world, observe, we are not interpolating a new 
factor. This is an essential part of the old idea. 
We have been following out an ever-widening en- 
vironment from point to point, and now we reach 
the outermost zones. The spiritual world is sim- 
ply the outermost segment, circle, or circles, of the 
natural world. For purposes of convenience we 
separate the two just as we separate the animal 
world from the plant. But the animal world and 
the plant world are the same world. They are 
different parts of one environment. And the nat- 
ural and spiritual are likewise one. The inner 
circles are called the natural, the outer the spirit- 
ual. And we call them spiritual simply because 
they are beyond us or beyond a part of us. 
What we have correspondence with, that we call 
natural ; what we have little or no correspond- 
ence with, that we call spiritual. But when the 
appropriate corresponding organism appears, the 
organism, that is, which can freely communicate 



142 DEA TH. 

with these outer circles, the distinction neces- 
sarily disappears. The spiritual to it becomes 
the outer circle of the natural. 

Now of the great mass of living organisms, of 
the great mass of men, is it not to be affirmed 
that they are out of corresi)ondence with this 
outer circle? Suppose, to make the final issue 
more real, we give this outermost circle of envi- 
ronment a name. Suppose we call it God. Sup- 
pose also we substitute a word for " correspond- 
ence " to express more intimately the personal 
relation. Let us call it Communion. We can 
how determine accuratel}' the spiritual relation of 
different sections of mankind. Those who are in 
communion with God live ; those who are not are 
dead. 

The extent or depth of this communion, the 
varying degrees of correspondence in different 
individuals, and the less or more abundant life 
which these result in, need not concern us for the 
present. The task we have set ourselves is to in- 
vestigate the essential nature of Spiritual Death. 
And we have found it to consist in a want of 
communion with God. The unspiritual man is 
he who lives in the circumscribed environment 
of this present world. " She that liveth in pleas- 
ure is Dead while she liveth." " To be carnally 
minded is Death." To be carnally minded, trans- 
lated into the language of science, is to be limited 
in one's correspondences to the environment of 
the natural man. It is no nec-ssary part of the 
conception that the mind should be eitlier pur- 



DEATH. 143 



posely irreligious, or directly vicious. The mind 
of the flesh, il^povr^iia r-^? <japKo<^, by its very 
nature, limited capacity, and time-ward tendency, 
is ^avaror, Death. This earthly mind may be of 
noble calibre, enriched by culture, high-toned, 
virtuous and pure. But if it know not God? 
What though its correspondences reach to the 
stars of heaven or grasp the magnitudes of Time 
and Space ? The stars of heaven are not heaven. 
Space is not God. This mind, certainly, has life, 
life up to its level. There is no trace of Death. 
Possibly too, it carries its deprivation lightly, and, 
up to its level, lives content. We do not picture 
the possessor of this carnal mind as in any sense a 
monster. We have said he may be high-toned, 
virtuous, and pure. The plant is not a monster 
because it is dead to the voice of the bird ; nor is 
he a monster who is dead to the voice of God. 
The contention at present simply is that he is 
Dead. 

We do not need to go to Revelation for the 
proof of this. That has been rendered unneces- 
sary by the testimony of the Dead themselves. 
Thousands have uttered themselves upon their 
relation to the Spiritual World, and from their 
own lips we have the proclamation of their Death. 
The language of theology in describing the state 
of the natural man is often regarded as severe. 
The Pauline anthropology has been challenged as 
an insult to human nature. Culture has opposed 
the doctrine that " The natural man receiveth 
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are 



144 D^^ ^^• 



foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned." And 
even some modern theologies have refused to ac- 
cept the most plain of the aphorisms of Jesus, 
that " Except a man be born again he cannot see 
the Kingdom of God." But this stern doctrine 
of the spiritual deadness of humanity is no mere 
dogma of a past theology. The history of 
thought during the present century proves that 
the world has come round spontaneousl}^ to the 
position of the first. One of the ablest philosoph-' 
ical schools of the day erects a whole anti-chris- 
tian system on this very doctrine. Seeking by 
means of it to sap the foundation of spiritual reli- 
gion, it stands unconsciously as the most signifi- 
cant witness for its truth. What is the creed of 
the Agnostic, but the confession of the spiritual 
numbness of humanity ? The negative doctrine 
which it reiterates with such sad persistency, 
what is it but the echo of the oldest of scientific 
and religious truths? And what are all these 
gloomy and rebellious infidelities, these touching, 
and too sincere confessions of universal nescience, 
but a protest against this ancient law of Death ? 

The Christian apologist never further misses the 
mark than when he refuses the testimony of the 
Agnostic to himself. When the Agnostic tells 
me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid and dead to 
the spiritual world, I must believe him. Jesus 
tells me that. Paul tells me that. Science tells 
me that. He knows nothing of this outermost 
circle; and we are compelled to trust his sincerity 



DEATH, 145 



as readily when he deplores it as if, being a man 
without an ear, he professed to know nothing of 
a musical world, or being without taste, of a 
world of art. The nescience of the Agnostic 
philosophy is the proof from experience that to be 
carnally minded is Death. Let the theological 
value of the concession be duly recognized. It 
brings no solace to the unspiritual man to be told 
\q is mistaken. To say he is self-deceived is 
neither to compliment him nor Christianity. He 
builds in all sincerity who raises his altar to the 
Unhnown God. He does not know God. With 
all his marvellous and complex correspondences, 
he is still one correspondence short. 

It is a point worthy of special note that the 
proclamation of this truth has always come from 
science rather than from religion. Its general ac- 
ceptance by thinkers is based upon the universal 
failure of a universal experiment. The state- 
ment, therefore, that the natural man discerneth 
not the things of the spirit, is never to be charged 
against the intolerance of theology. There is no 
point at which theology has been more modest 
than here. It has left the preachiug of a great 
fundamental truth almost entirely to philosophy 
and science. And so very moderate has been its 
tone, so slight has been the emphasis placed upon 
the paralysis of the natural with regard to the 
spiritual, that it may seem to some to have been 
intolerantly tolerant. No harm certainly could 
come now, no offence could be given to science, if 
religion asserted more clearly its right to the 
10 



146 DEATH. 

spiritual world. Science has paved the way for 
the reception of one of the most revolutionary 
doctrines of Christianity ; and if Christianity re- 
fuses to take advantage of the opening it will 
manifest a culpable want of confidence in itself. 
There never was a time when its fundamental 
doctrines could more boldly be proclaimed, or 
when they could better secure the respect and 
arrest the interest of Science. 

To .all this, and apparently with force, it may, 
however, be objected that to ever}^ man who 
truly studies Nature there is a God. Call Him 
by whatever name — a Creator, a Supreme Being,' 
a Great First Cause, a Power that makes for 
Righteousness — Science has a God ; and he who 
believes in this, in spite of all protest, possesses a 
theology. If we will look at things, and not 
merely at words, we shall soon see the scientific 
man has a theology and a God, a most impressive 
theolog}^ a most awful and glorious God. I say 
that man believes in a God, who feels himself in 
the presence of a Power which is not himself, and 
is immeasurably above himself, a Power in the 
contemplation of which he is absorbed, in the 
knowledge of which he finds safet}* and happi- 
ness. And such now is Nature to the scientific 
man." ^ Such now, we humbly submit, is Nature 
to very few. Their own confession is against it. 
That they are " absorbed " in the contemplation 
we can well believe. That they might '^ find safety 
and happiness" in the knowledge of Him is also 
' ** Natural Religion," p. 19, 



DEATH. 147 



possible — if they had it. But this is just what 
they tell us they have not. What they deny is 
not a God. It is the correspondence. The very 
confession of the Unknowable is itself the dull 
recognition of an environment beyond them- 
selves, and for which they feel they lack the cor- 
respondence. It is this want that makes their 
God the Unknown God. And it is this that 
makes them dead. 

We have not said, or implied, that there is not 
a God of Nature. We have not affirmed that 
there is no Natural Religion. We are assured 
there is. We are even assured that without a 
Religion of Nature Religion is only half com- 
plete ; that without a God of Nature the God of 
Revelation is only half intelligible and only par- 
tially known. God is not confined to the outer- 
most circle of environment. He lives and moves 
and has His being in the whole. Those who only 
seek Him in the further zone can only find a 
part. The Christian who knows not God in 
Nature, who does not, that is to say, correspond 
with the whole environment, most certainly is 
partially dead. The author of "Ecce Homo" 
may be partially right when he saj^s : " I think a 
bystander would say that though Christianity had 
in it something far higher and deeper and more 
ennobling, yet the average scientific man worships 
just at present a more awful, and, as it were, a 
greater Deity than the average Christian. In so 
many Christians the idea of God has been de- 
graded by childish and little-minded teaching; the 



148 DEATH. 



Eternal and the Infinite and the All-embracing has 
been represented as the head of the clerical 
interest, as a sort of clergyman, as a sort of 
schoolmaster, as a sort of philanthropist. But 
the scientific man knows Him to be eternal ; in 
astronomy, in geology, he becomes familiar with 
the countless millenniums of His lifetime. The 
scientific man strains his mind actually to realize 
God's infinity. As far off as the fixed stars he 
traces Him, ' distance inexpressible by numbers 
that have name.' Meanwhile, to the theologian, 
infinity and eternity are very much of empty 
words when applied to the Object of his worsliip. 
He does not realize them in actual facts and 
definite computations." ^ Let us accept this re- 
buke. The principle that want of correspondence is 
Death applies all round. He who knows not God in. 
Nature only partially lives. The converse of this, 
however, is not true ; and that is the point we are 
insisting on. He who knows God only in Nature 
lives not. There is no " correspondence " with an 
Unknown God, no " continuous adjustment " to a 
fixed First Cause. There is no " assimilation " of 
Natural Law ; no growth in the Image of '* the 
All-embracing." To correspond with the God of 
Science assuredly is not to live. " This is Life 
Eternal, to know Thee, the true God^ and Jesus 
Christ Whom Thou hast sent." 

From the service We have tried to make natural 
science render to our religion, we might be ex- 
pected possibly to take up the position that the 
"Natural Keligion," p. 20. 



DEATH, 149 



absolute contribution of Science to Revelation was 
very great. On the contrary, it is very small. 
The absolute contribution, that is, is very small. 
The contribution on the whole is immense, vaster 
than we have yet any idea of. But without the 
aid of the higher Revelation this many-toned and 
far-reaching voice had been forever dumb. The 
light of Nature, say the most for it, is dim — how 
dim we ourselves, with the glare of other Light 
upon the modern world, can only realize when we 
seek among the pagan records of the past for the 
gropings after truth of those whose only light was 
this. Powerfully significant and touching as these 
efforts were in their success, they are far more sig- 
nificant and touching in their failure. For they 
did fail. It requires no philosophy now to specu- 
late on the adequacy or inadequacy of the Relig- 
ion of Nature. For us who could never weigh it 
rightly in the scales of Truth it has been tried in 
the balance of experience and found wanting. 
Theism is the easiest of all religions to get, but 
the most difficult to keep. Individuals have kept 
it, but nations never. Socrates and Aristotle, 
Cicero and Epictetus had a theistic religion; 
Greece and Rome had none. And even after get- 
ting what seems like a firm place in the minds of 
men, its unstable equilibrium sooner or later be= 
trays itself. On the one hand theism has always 
fallen into the wildest polytheism, or on tlie other 
into the blankest atheism. "It is an indubitable 
historical fact that, outside of the sphere of special 
revslation, man has never obtained such a knowl- 



I50 DEATH. 

edge of God as a responsible and religious being 
plainly requires. The wisdom of the heathen 
world, at its very best, was utterly inadequate to 
the accomplishment of such a task as creating a 
due abhorrence of sin, controlling the passions, 
purifying the heart, and ennobling the conduct.'' ^ 

What is the inference ? That this poor rush- 
light by itself was never meant to lend the ray by 
which man should read the riddle of the universe. 
The mystery is too impenetrable and remote for 
its uncertain flicker to more than make the dark- 
ness deeper. What indeed if this were not a light 
at all, but only a part of a light — the carbon point, 
the fragment of calcium, the reflector in the great 
Lantern which contains the Light of the World? 

This is one inference. But the most important 
is that the absence of the true Light means moral 
Death. The darkness of the natural world to the 
intellect is not all. What history testifies to is, 
first the partial, and then the total eclipse of virtue 
that always follows the abandonment of belief in 
a personal God. It is not, as has been pointed out 
a hundred times, that morality in the abstract dis- 
appears, but the motive and sanction are gone. 
There is nothing to raise it from the dead. Man's 
attitude to it is left to himself. Grant that morals 
have their own base in human life ; grant that 
Nature has a Religion whose creed is Science ; 
there is yet nothing apart from God to save the 
world from moral Death. Morality has the power 
to dictate but none to move. Nature directs but 
' Prof. Flint, "Theism," p. 305. 



DEATH. 151 



cannot control. As was wisely expressed in one 
of many pregnant utterances during a recent 
Symposium^ " Though the decay of religion may 
leave the institutes of morality intact, it drains off 
their inward power. The devout faith of men ex» 
presses and measures the intensity of their moral 
nature, and it cannot be lost without a remission 
of enthusiasm, and under this low pressure, the 
successful re-entrance of importunate desires and 
clamorous passions which had been driven back. 
To believe in an ever-living and perfect Mind, 
supreme over the universe, is to invest moral dis- 
tinctions with immensity and eternity, and lift 
them from the provincial stage of human society 
to the imperishable theatre of all being. When 
planted thus in the very substance of things, they 
justify and support the ideal estimates of the con- 
science ; they deepen every guilty shame ; they 
guarantee every righteous hope ; and they help 
the will with a Divine casting-vote in every bal- 
ance of temptation." ^ That morality has a basis 
in human society, that Nature has a Religion, 
surely makes the Death of the soul when left to 
itself all the more appalling. It means that, be- 
tween them, Nature and morality provide all for 
virtue — except the Life to live it. 

It is at this point accordingly that our subject 
comes into intimate contact with Religion. The 
proposition that " to be carnally minded is Death " 

^Martineau: Vide the whole Symposium on "The 
Influences upon Morality of a Decline in Religious Be- 
lief." — Nineteenth Century, vol. i. pp. 331, 531. 



152 DEATH. 



even the moralist will assent to. But when it is 
further announced that " the carnal mind is enmity 
against God " we find ourselves in a different re- 
gion. And when we find it also stated that " the 
wages of sin is Death," we are in the heart of the 
profoundest questions of theology. What before 
was merely ••' enmity against society " becomes 
'* enmity against God ; " and what was " vice " is 
«' sin." The conception of a God gives an alto- 
gether new color to worldliness and vice. World- 
liness it changes into heathenism, vice into blas- 
phemy. The carnal mind, the mind which is 
turned away from God, which will not correspond 
with God — this is not moral only but spiritual 
Death. And Sin, that which separates from God,- 
which disobeys God, which can not in that state, 
correspond with God — this is hell. 

To the estrangement of the soul from God the 
best of theology traces the ultimate cause of sin. 
Sin is simply apostasy from God, unbelief in God. 
**• Sin is manifest in its true character when the 
demand of holiness in the conscience, presenting 
itself to the man as one of loving submission to 
God, is ])\xi from him with aversion. Here sin 
appears as it really is, a turning away from God ; 
and while the man's guilt is enhanced, there en- 
sues a benumbing of the heart resulting from the 
crushing of those higher impulses. This is what 
is meant by the reprobate state of those who re- 
ject Christ and will not believe the Gospel, so 
often spoken of in the New Testament ; this un- 
belief is just the closing of the heart against the 



DEATH. 153 



highest love." ^ The other view of siu. probably 
the more popular at present, that sin consists in . 
selfishness, is merely this from another aspect. 
Obviously if the mind turns away from one part 
of the environment it will only do so under some 
temptation to correspond with another. Thi& 
temptation, at bottom, can only come from one 
source — the love of self. The irreligious man's 
correspondences are concentrated upon himself. 
He worships himself. Self-gratification rather 
than self-denial; independence rather than sub- 
mission — these are the rules of life. And this is 
at once the poorest and the commonest form of 
idolatry. 

But whichever of these views of sin we empha- 
size, we find both equally connected with Death. 
If sin is estrangement from God, this very es- 
trangement is Death. It is a want of corre- 
spondence. If sin is selfishness, it is conducted 
at the expense of life. Its wages are Death — 
"he that loveth his life," said Christ, "shall lose 
it." 

Yet the paralysis of the moral nature apart 
from God does not only depend for its evidence 
upon theology or even upon history. From the ,| 
analogies of Nature one would expect this result \ 
as a necessary consequence. The development 
of any organism in any direction is dependent on 
its environment. A living cell cut off from air 
will die. A seed-germ apart from moisture and 

'Miiller: "Christian Doctrine of Sin." 2d ed., vol. 
i. p. 131. 



154 DEATH. 



an appropriate temperature will make the grounc} 
its grave for centuries. Human nature, likewise, 
is subject to similar conditions. It can only de- 
velop in presence of its environment. No mat 
ter what seeds of thought or virtue, what germs 
of genius or of art, lie latent in its breast, until 
the appropriate environment present itself the 
correspondence is denied, the development dis- 
couraged, the most splendid possibilities of life 
remain unrealized, and thought and virtue, genius 
and art, are dead. The true environment of the 
moral life is God. • Here conscience wakes. Here 
kindles love. Duty here becomes heroic; and 
that righteousness begins to live which alone is 
to live foreveir. But if this Atmosphere is not, 
the dwarfed soul must perish for mere want of its 
native air. And its Death is a strictly natural 
Death. It is not an exceptional judgment upon 
Atheism. In the same circumstances, in the same 
averted relation to their environment, the poet, 
the musician, the artist, would alike perish to 
poetry, to music, and to art. Every environment 
is a cause. Its effect upon me is exactly propor- 
tionate to my correspondence with it. If I corre- 
spond with part of it, part of myself is influ- 
enced. If I correspond with more, more of my. 
self is influenced ; if with all, all is influenced. 
If I correspond with the world, I become 
worldl}^ ; if with God, I become Divine. As 
without correspondence of the scientific man with 
the natural environment there could be no 
Science and no action founded on the knowledge 



DEATH. 155 



L. 



of Nature, so without communion with the spirit- 
ual Environment there can be no Religion. To 
refuse to cultivate the religious relation is to deny 
to the soul its highest right — the right to a further 
evolution.^ 

AYe have already admitted that he who knows 
not God may not be a monster ; we cannot say 
he will not be a dwarf. This precisely, and on 
perfectly natural principles, is what he must 
be. You can dwarf a soul just as you can 
dwarf a plant, by depriving it of a full environ- 
ment. Such a soul for a time may have "a 
name to live." Its character may betray no sign 
of atrophy. But its very virtue somehow has 
the pallor of a flower that is grown in darkness, 
or as the herb which has never seen the sun, no 
fragrance breathes from its spirit. To morality, 
possibly, this organism offers the example of an 
irreproachable life ; but to science it is an in- 

^ It would not be difficult to show, were this the im- 
mediate subject, that it is not only a right but a duty 
tG exercise the spiritual faculties, a duty demanded 
not by religion merely, but by science. Upon biolog- 
ical principles man owes his full development to him- 
self, to nature, and to his fellow-men. Thus Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer affirms, " The performance of every func- 
tion is, in a sense, a moral obligation. It is usually 
thought that morality requires us only to restrain such 
vital activities as, in our j^resent state, are often 
pushed to excess, or such as conflict with average wel- 
fare, special or general; but it also requires us to carry 
on these vital activities up to their normal limits. All 
the animal functions, in common with all the higher 
functions, have, as thus understood, their imperative- 
ness."—" The Data of Ethics," 2d ed., p. 76. 



156 DEATH. 



stance of arrested development ; and to religion 
it presents the spectacle of a corpse — a living 
Death. With Ruskin, " I do not wonder at what 
men suffer, but I wonder often at what they 
lose" 



MORTIFICATION. 



" if, hy tying Us main artery^ we stop most of the hlood going to 
a limb, then, for as long as the limb performs its functtoti, those 
parts which are called into play must be wasted faster than they are 
repaired : tohence eventual disablement. The relation between due 
receipt of nutritive matters through its arteries, and due discharge 
of its duties by the limb, is a part of the physical order. If instead 
of cutting off the supply to a 'particular limb, we bleed the patient 
largely, so drafting away the materials needed for repairing not one 
limb but all limbs, and not limbs only but viscera, there residis both 
a muscular debility and an enfeeblemerit of the vital functions. 
Here, again, cause and effect ore necessarily related. . . . Pass 
noio to those actions mor^ commonly ihcv^ht of as the occasions for 
rvies of conduct.''^ 

Heebeet Spenceb. 



MORTIFICATION. 

"Mortify therefore your members which are upon 
earth." — Paul. 

" O Star-eyed Science ! hast thou wandered there 
To waft us home the message of despair ? " — Camphell. 

The definition of Death which science has 
given us is this : A falling out of correspondence 
with environment. When, for example, a man 
loses the sight of his eyes, his correspondence 
with the environing world is curtailed. His life 
is limited in an important direction ; he is less liv- 
ing than he was before. If, in addition, he lose 
the senses of touch and hearing, his correspond- ^ 
ences are still further limited ; he is therefore 
still further dead. And when all possible corre- 
spondences have ceased, when the nerves decline 
to respond to any stimulus, when the lungs close 
their gates against the air, when the heart refuses 
to correspond with the blood by so much as an- 
pther beat, the insensate corpse is wholly and for- 
ever dead. The soul, in like manner, which has 
no correspondence with the spiritual environment 
is spiritually dead. It maj^ be that it never pos- 
sessed the spiritual eye or the spiritual ear, or a 
heart which throbbed in response to the love of 
God. If so, having never lived, it cannot be said 
to have died. But not to have these correspond. 

(159) 



1 60 MORTIFICA TION, 

ences is to be in the state of Death. To the spir- 
itual world, to the Divine Environment, it is dead 
— as a stone which has never lived is dead to the 
environment of the organic world. 

Having already abundantly illustrated this use 
of the symbol Death, we may proceed to deal 
with another class of expressions where the same 
term is employed in an exactly opposite connec- 
tion. It is a proof of the radical nature of re- 
ligion that a word so extreme should have to be 
used again and again in Christian teaching, to de- 
fine in different directions the true spiritual rela- 
tions of mankind. Hitherto we have concerned 
ourselves with the condition of the natural man 
with regard to the spiritual world. We have 
now to speak of the relations of the spiritual man 
with regard to the natural world. Carrying with 
us the same essential principle — want of corre- 
spondence — underlying the meaning of Death, we 
shall find that the relation of the spiritual man to 
the natural world, or at least to part of it, is to be 
that of Death. 

When the natural man becomes the spiritual 
man, the great change is described by Christ as a 
passing from Death unto Life. Before the transi- 
tion occured, the practical difficulty was this, how 
to get into correspondence with the new Environ- 
ment? But no sooner is this correspondence es- 
tablished than the problem is reversed. The ques- 
tion now is, how to get out of correspondence 
with the old environment ? The moment the new 
life is begun there comes a genuine anxiety to 



MORTIFICATION, l6l 

break with tHe old. For the former environment 
has now become embarrassing. It refuses its dis- 
missal from consciousness. It competes doggedly 
with the new Environment for a share of the 
correspondences. And in a hundred ways the 
former traditions, the memories and passions of 
the past, the fixed associations and habits of the 
earlier life, now complicate the new relation. 
The complex and bewildered soul, in fact, finds 
itself in correspondence with two environments, 
each with urgent but yet incompatible claims. It 
is a dual soul living in a double world, a world 
whose inhabitants are deadly enemies, and en- 
gaged in perpetual civil war. 

The position of things is perplexing. It is clear 
that no man can attempt to live both lives. To 
walk both in the flesh aad in the spirit is morally 
impossible. " No man," as Christ so often em- 
phasized, " can serve two masters." And yet, as 
matter of fact, here is the new-born being in com- 
munication with both environments ! With sin 
and purity, light and darkness, time and Eternity, 
God and Devil, the confused and undecided soul 
is now in correspondence. What is to be done iu 
such an emergency ? How can the New Life de- 
liver itself from the still-persistent past ? 

A ready solution of the difficulty would be to 
die. Were one to die organically, to die and " go 
to heaven," all correspondence with the lower en- 
vironment would be arrested at a stroke. For 
Physical Death of course simply means the final 
stoppage of all natural correspondences with this 



l62 MORTIFICATION, 

sinful world. But this alternative, fortunately or 
unfortunately, is not open. The detention here 
of body and spirit for a given period is determined 
for us, and we are morally bound to accept the 
situation. We must look then for a further alter- 
native. 

Actual Death being denied us, we must ask 
ourselves if there is nothing else resembling it — • 
no artificial relation, no imitation or semblance 
of Death which would serve our purpose. If we 
cannot yet die absolutely, surely the next best 
thingwill.be to find a temporary substitute. If 
we cannot die altogether, in short, the most we 
can do is to die as much as we can. And we now 
know this is open to us, and how. To die to any 
environment is to withdraw correspondence with 
it, to cut ourselves off, so far as possible, from all 
communication with it. So that the solution of 
the problem will simply be this, for the spiritual 
life to reverse continuously the processes of the 
natural life. The spiritual man having passed 
from Death unto Life, the natural man must next 
proceed to pass from Life unto Death. Having 
opened the new set of correspondences, he must 
deliberately close up the old. Regeneration in 
short must be accompanied by Degeneration. 

Now it is no surprise to find that this is the proc 
ess everywhere described and recommended by 
the founders of the Christian system. Their pro* 
posal to the natural man, or rather to the natural 
part of the spiritual man, with regard to a whole 
series of inimical relations, is precisely this. If 



MORTIFICATION, 163 

he cannot really die, he must make an adequate 
approach to it by '' reckoning himself dead." 
Seeing that, until the cycle of his organic life is 
complete he cannot die physically, he must mean- 
time die morally, reckoning himself morally dead 
to that environment which, by competing for his 
correspondences, has now become an obstacle to 
his spiritual life. 

The variety of ways in which the New Testa- 
ment writers insist upon this somewhat extraordi- 
nary method is sufficiently remarkable. And al- 
though the idea involved is essentially the same 
throughout, it will clearly illustrate the nature of 
the act if we examine separately three different 
modes of expression emploj^ed in the later Scrip- 
tures in this connection. The methods by which 
the spiritual man is to withdraw himself from the 
old environment — or from that part of it which 
will directly hinder the spiritual life— -are three 
in number : 

First, Suicide. 
Second, Mortification. 
Third, Limitation. 

It will be found in practice that these different 
iaaethods are adapted, respectively, to meet three 
different forms of temptation ; so that we possess 
a sufficient warrant for giving a brief separate 
treatment to each. 

First, Suicide. Stated in undisguised phrase- 
ology, the advice of Paul to the Christian, with 
regard to a part of his nature, is to commit 



1 64 MOR TIFICA TION. 

suicide. If the Christian is to " live unto God/* 
lie must "die unto sin." If he does not kill sin, 
sin will inevitably kill him. Recognizing this, he 
must set himself to reduce the number of his 
correspondences — retaining and developing those 
which lead to a fuller life, unconditionally with- 
drawing those which in any way tend in an oppo- 
site direction. This stoppage of correspondences 
is a voluntary act, a crucifixion of the flesh, a 
suicide. 

Now the least experience of life will make it 
evident that a large class of sins can onl}^ be met, as 
it were by Suicide. The peculiar feature of 
Death by Suicide is that it is not only self-inflicted 
but sudden. And there are many sins which must 
either be dealt with suddenly or not at all. 
Under this category, for instance, are to be in- 
cluded generally all sins of the appetites and 
passions. Other sins from their peculiar nature, 
can only be treated by methods less abrupt, but 
the sudden operation of the knife is tlie onW suc- 
cessful means of dealing with fleshly sins. For 
example, the correspondence of the drunkard with 
his wine is a thing that can be broken off by 
degrees only in the rarest cases. To attempt it 
gradually may in an isolated case succeed, but 
even then the slightly prolonged gratification is no 
compensation for the slow torture of a gradually 
diminishing indulgence. " If thine appetite of- 
fend thee cut it off," may seem at first but a harsh 
remedy ; but when we contemplate on the one 
hand the lingering pain of the gradual process, on 



MORTIFICAl-ION, 165 

the other its constant peril, we are compelled to 
admit that the principle is as kind as it is wise. 
The expression " total abstinence " in such a case 
is a strictly biological formula. It implies the 
sudden destruction of a definite portion of 
environment by the total withdrawal of all the 
connecting links. Obviously, of course, total 
abstinence ought thus to be allowed a much wider 
application than to cases of "intemperance." It 
is the only decisive method of dealing with any 
sin of the flesh. The very nature of the relations 
makes it absolutely imperative that every victim 
of unlawful appetite, in whatever direction, shall 
totally abstain. Hence Christ's apparently ex- 
treme and peremptory language defines the only 
possible, as well as the only charitable, expedi- 
ent : '' If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, 
and cast it from thee. And if thy right hand 
offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee." 

The humanity of what is called " sudden con- 
version " has never been insisted on as it deserves. 
In discussing "Biogenesis"^ it has been already 
pointed out that while growth is a slow and grad- 
ual process, the change from Death to Life alike 
in the natural and spiritual spheres is the work of 
a moment. Whatever the conscious hour of the 
second birth may be — in the case of an adult it is 
probably defined by the first real victory over sin 
— it is certain that on biological principles the 
real turning-point is literally a moment. But on 
moral and humane grounds this misunderstood, 
1 Page 93. 



l66 MORTIFICATION, 

perverted, and therefore despised doctrine is 
equally capable of defence. Were any reformer, 
with an adequate knowledge of human life, to sit 
iown and plan a scheme for the salvation of sin- 
ful men, he would probably come to the conclusion 
that the best way after all, perhaps indeed the 
only way, to turn a sinner from the error of his 
ways would be to do it suddenly. 

Suppose a drunkard were advised to take off 
one portion from his usual allowance the first 
week, another the second, and so on I Or suppose 
at first he only allowed himself to become intoxi- 
cated in the evenings, then every second evening, 
then only on Saturday nights, and finally only 
every Christmas? How would a thief be re- 
formed if he slowly reduced the number of his 
burglaries, or a wife -beater by gradually diminish- 
ing the number of his blows? The argument 
ends with an ad ahsurdum. "Let him that stole 
steal no morer is the only feasible, the only moral, 
and the only humane way. This may not apply 
to every case, but when any part of man's sinful 
life can be dealt with by immediate Suicide, to 
make him reach the end, even were it possible, by 
a lingering death, would be a monstrous cruelty. 
And yet it is this very thing in " sudden conver- 
sion," that men object to — the sudden change, the 
decisive stand, the uncompromising rupture with 
the past, the precipitate flight from sin as of one 
escaping for his life. Men surely forget that this 
is an escaping for one's life. Let the poor pris- 
oner run — madly and blindly if he likes for the 



MORTIFICA TION. 1 6/ 

terror of Death is upon him. God knows, when 
the ]1ause comes, how the chains will gall him 
still. 

It is a peculiarity of the sinful state, that as a 
general rule men are linked to evil mainly by a 
single correspondence. Few men break the whole 
law. Our natures, fortunately, are not large 
enough to make us guilty of all, and the restraints 
of circumstances are usually such as to leave a 
loophole in the life of each individual for only a 
single habitual sin. But it is very easy to see 
how this reduction of our intercourse with evil to 
a single correspondence blinds us to our true posi- 
tion. Our correspondences, as a whole, are not 
with evil, and in our calculations as to our spirit- 
ual condition we emphasize the many negatives 
rather than the single positive. One little weak- 
ness, we are apt to fancy, all men must be allowed, 
and we even claim a certain indulgence for that 
apparent necessity of nature which we call our be- 
setting sin. Yet to break with the lower environ- 
ment at all, to many, is to break at this single 
point. It is the only important point at which 
they touch it, circumstances or natural disposition 
making habitual contact at other places impossible. 
The sinful environment, in short, to them means 
a small but well-defined area. Now if contact at 
this point be not broken off, they are virtually in 
contact still with the whole environment. There 
may be only one avenue between the new life and 
the old, it may be but a small and subterranean 
'pauage^ but this is sufficient to keep the old life 



l68 MORTIFICATION, 

in. So long as that remains the victim is not 
" dead unto sin," and therefore he cannot •*' live 
unto God." Hence the reasonableness of the 
words, " Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and 
yet offend at one point, he is guilty of all." In 
the natural world it only requires a single vital 
correspondence of the body to be out of order to 
ensure Death. It is not necessary to have con- 
sumption, diabetes, and an aneurism to bring the 
body to the grave if it have heart-disease. He 
who is fatally diseased in one organ necessarily 
pays the penalty with his life, though all the 
others be in perfect health. And such, likewise, 
are the mysterious unity and correlation of func- 
tions in the spiritual organism that the disease of 
one member may involve the ruin of the whole. 
The reason, therefore, with which Christ follows 
up the announcement of His Doctrine of Mutila- 
tion, or local Suicide, finds here at once its justifi- 
cation and interpretation : '' If thy right eye 
offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee : 
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy mem- 
bers should perish, and not that thy whole body 
should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand 
offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee : for 
it is profitable for thee that one of thy members 
should perish, and not that thy ivhole body should 
be cast into hell." 

Secondly, Mortification. The warrant for the 
use of this expression is found in the well-known 
phrases of Paul, " If ye through the Spirit do mor- 
tify the deeds of the body ye shall live," and 



MORTIFICATION. 169 

" Mortify therefore your members which are upon 
earth." The word mortify here is, literally, to 
make to die. It is used, of course, in no specially 
technical sense ; and to attempt to draw a detailed 
moral from the pathology of mortification would 
be equally fantastic and irrelevant. But without 
in any way straining the meaning it is obvious 
that we have here a slight addition to our concep- 
tion of dying to siuc In contrast with Suicide, 
Mortification implies a gradual rather than a sud- 
den process. The contexts in which the passages 
occur will make this meaning so clear, and are 
otherwise so instructive in the general connection, 
that we may quote them, from the New Version, 
at length : " They that are after the flesh do 
mind the things of the flesh; but they. that are 
after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the 
mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the 
Spirit is life and peace : because the mind of the 
flesh is enmity against God ; for it is not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed can it be : and 
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But 
ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be 
that the Spirit of God dwell in you. But if any 
man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead 
because of sin ; but the Spirit is life because of 
righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that 
raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you. 
He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall 
quicken also your mortal bodies through His 
Spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, brethreHf 



Xyo MORTIFICATION. 

we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the 
flesh : for if ye live after the flesh ye must die; 
but if by the Spirit ye mortify the doings (marg.) 
of the body, ye shall live." ^ 

And again, " If then ye were raised together with 
Christ, seek the things that are above, where 
Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Set 
your mind on the things that are above, not on 
the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, 
and your life is hid with Christ in God. When 
Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then 
shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory. 
Mortify therefore your members which are upon 
the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil 
desire, and covetousness, the which is idolatry ; 
for which things' sake cometh the wrath of God 
upon the sons of disobedience ; in the which ye 
also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these 
things. But now put ye also away all these ; 
anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking 
out of your mouth ; lie not one to another ; 
seeing that ye have put off the old man with his 
doings, and have put on the new man, which is 
being renewed unto knowledge after the image 
of Him that created him." ^ 

From the nature of the case as here stated it is 
evident that no sudden process could entirely 
transfer a man from the old into the new relation. 
To break altogether, and at every point, with the 
old environment, is a simple impossibility. So 
long as the regenerate man is kept in this world, 
' Eom- viii. 6-13. ^ Col. iii. 1-10. 




^^MJ^^ 



MORTIFICA TION, 1 7 1 

he must find the old environment at many points 
a severe temptation. Power over ver}^ many of 
ibe commonest temptations is only to be won by 
degrees, and however anxious one might be to pa- 
ply the summary method to every case, he soon 
finds it impossible in practice. The difficulty in 
these cases arises from a peculiar feature of the 
temptation. The difference between a sin of 
drunkenness, and, let us say, a sin of temper, is 
that in the former case the victim who would re- 
form has mainly to deal with the environment, 
but in the latter with the correspondence. The 
drunkard's temptation is a known and definite 
quantity. His safety lies in avoiding some ex- 
ternal and material substance. Of course, at bot- 
tom, he is really dealing with the correspondence 
every time he resists ; he is distinctly controlling 
appetite. Nevertheless it is less the appetite that 
absorbs his mind than the environment. And so 
long as he can keep himself clear of the " exter- 
nal relation," to use Mr. Herbert SjDencer's 
phraseology, he has much less difficulty with the 
" internal relation." The ill-tempered person, on 
the other hand, can make very little of his en- 
vironment. However he may attempt to circum- 
scribe it in certain directions, there will always 
remain a wide and ever-changing area to stimu- 
late his irascibility. His environment, in short, 
is an inconstant quantity, and his most elaborate 
calculations and precautions must often and sud- 
denly fail him. 

What he has to deal with, then, mainly is the 
G 



1 72 MORTIFICA TION. 

correspondence, the temper itself. And that, he 
well knows, involves a long and humiliating dis- 
cipline. The case now is not at all a surgical but 
a medical one, and the knife is here of no more 
use than in a fever. A specific irritant has pois- 
oned his veins. And the acrid humors that are 
breaking out all over the surface of his life are 
only to be subdued by a gradual sweetening of 
the inward spirit. It is now known that the hu- 
man body acts toward certain fever-germs as a 
sort of soil. The man whose blood is pure has 
nothing to fear. So he whose spirit is purified 
and sweetened becomes proof against these germs 
of sin. " Anger, wrath, malice and railing," in 
such a soil can find no root. 

The difference between this and the former 
method of dealing with sin may be illustrated by 
another analogy. The two processes depend upon 
two different natural principles. The Mutilation 
of a member, for instance, finds its analogue in 
the horticultural operation of pruning^ where the 
object is to divert life from a useless into a useful 
channel. A part of a plant which previously 
monopolized a large share of the vigor of the 
total organism, but without yielding any adequate 
return, is suddenly cut off, so that the vital pro- 
cesses may proceed more actively in some fruitful 
parts. Christ*s use of this figure is well known : 
" Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He 
purge th it that it may bring forth more fruit.'* 
The strength of the plant, that is, being given to 
the formation of mere wood, a number of useless 



MORTIFICA TION. 1 73 

correspondences have to be abruptly closed while 
the useful connections are allowed to remain. 
The Mortification of a member, again, is based on 
the Law of Degeneration. The useless member 
here is not cut off, but simply relieved as much ag 
possible of all exercise. This encourages the 
gradual decay of the parts, and as it is more and 
more neglected it ceases to be a channel for life 
at all. So an organism '' mortifies " its members. 
Thirdly, Limitation. While a large number of 
correspondences between man and his environ- 
ment can be stopped in these ways, there are many 
more which neither can be reduced by a gradual 
Mortification nor cut short by sudden Death. One 
reason for this is tliat to tamper with these cor- 
respondences might involve injury to closely re- 
lated vital parts. Or, again, there are organs 
which are really essential to the normal life of the 
organism, and which, therefore, the organism can- 
not afford to lose even though at times they act 
prejudicially. Not a few correspondences, for in- 
stance, are not wrong in themselves but only in 
their extremes. Up to a certain point they are 
lawful and necessary ; beyond that point they may 
become not only unnecessary but sinful. The 
appropriate treatment in these and similar cases 
consists in a process of Limitation. The perform- 
ance of this operation, it must be confessed, re- 
quires a most delicate hand. It is an art, more- 
over, which no one can teach another. And yet, 
if it is not learned by all who are trying to lead 
the Christian life, it cannot be for want of prac- 



1 74 MORTIFICA TION. 

tice. For, as we shall see, the Christian is called 
upon to exercise few things more frequently. 

An easy illustration of a correspondence which 
is only wrong when carried to an extreme, is the 
love of money. The love of money up to a cer- 
tain point is a necessity ; beyond that it may be- 
come one of the worst of sins. Christ said: 
" Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." The two 
services, at a definite point, become incompatible, 
and hence correspondence with one must cease. 
At what point, however, it must cease each man 
has to determine for himself. And in this con- 
sists at once the difficulty and the dignity of 
Limitation. 

There is another class of cases where the adjust- 
ments are still more difficult to determine. Innu- 
merable points exist in our surroundings with 
which it is perfectly legitimate to enjoy, and even to 
cultivate, correspondence, but which privilege, at 
the same time, it were better on the whole that 
we did not use. Circumstances are occasionally 
such — the demands of others upon us, for ex- 
ample, may be so clamant — that we have volun- 
tarily to reduce the area of legitimate pleasure. 
Or, instead of it coming from others, the claim 
may come from a still higher direction. Man's 
spiritual life consists in the number and fullness of 
his correspondences with God. In order to de- 
velop these he may be constrained to insulate them, 
to enclose them from tne other correspondences, 
to shut himself in with them. In many ways the 



MORTIFICA TION, 1 75 

limitation of the natural life is the necessary con- 
dition of the full enjoyment of the spiritual life. 

In this principle lies the true philosophy of 
self-denial. No man is called to a life of self- 
denial for its own sake. It is in order to a com- 
pensation which, though sometimes difficult to see, 
is always real and alwaj^s proportionate. No 
truth, perhaps, in practical religion is more lost 
sight of. We cherish somehow a lingering rebel- 
lion against the doctrine of self-denial — as if our 
nature, or our circumstances, or our conscience, 
dealt with us severely in loading us with the daily 
cross. But is it not plain after all that the life of 
self-denial is the more abundant life — more abund- 
ant just in proportion to the ampler crucifixion of 
the narrower life? Is it not a clear case of 
exchange — an exchange, howeA^er, where the ad- 
vantage is entirely on our side ? We give up a cor- 
respondence in which there is a little life to enjoy 
a correspondence in which there is an abundant 
life. What though we sacrifice a hundred such 
correspondences? We make but the more room 
for the great one that is left. The lesson of self- 
denial, that is to say of Limitation, is concentra- 
tion. Do not spoil 3^our life, it says, at the outset 
with unworthy and impoverishing correspond- 
ences ; and if it is growing truly rich and abund- 
ant, be very jealous of ever diluting its high 
eternal quality with anything of earth. To con- 
centrate upon a few great correspondences, 
to oppose to the death the perpetual petty larceny 
of our life by trifles — these are the conditions for 



1 76 MOR TIFICA TION. 

the highest and happiest life. It is only Limita- 
tion which can secure the Illimitable. 

The penalty of evading self-denial also is just 
that we get the lesser instead of the larger good. 
The punishment of sin is inseparably bound up 
with itself. To refuse to deny one's self is just 
to be left with the self undenied. When the 
^balance of life is struck, the self will be found 
still there. The discipline of life was meant to 
destroy this self, but that discipline having been 
evaded — and we all to some extent have oppor- 
tunities, and too often exercise them, of taking 
the narrow path by the shortest ctits — its purpose 
is baulked. But the soul is the loser. In seeking 
to gain its life it has really lost it. This is what 
Christ meant when He said: "He that loveth 
his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in 
this world shall keep it unto life eternal." 

Why does Christ say : " Hate Life ? " Does 
He mean that life is a sin ? No. Life is not a 
sin. Still, He says we must hate it. But we 
must live. Why should we hate what we must 
do? For this reason: Life is not a sin, but the 
love of life may be a sin. And the best way not to 
love life is to hate it. Is it a sin then to love life ? 
Not a sin exactly, but a mistake. It is a sin to 
love some life, a mistake to love the rest. Because 
that love is lost. All that is lavished on it is lost. 
Christ does not say it is wrong to love life. He 
simply says it is Zoss. Each man has only a certain 
amount of life, of time, of attention — a definite 
measureable quantity. If he gives any of it to 



MORTIFICA 2I0JV. I yj 

fhis life solely it is wasted. Therefore Christ says, 
Hate life, limit life, lest you steal your love for it 
from something that deserves it more. 

Now this does not apply to all life. It is " life 
in this world '* that is to be hated. For life in 
this world implies conformity to t^his world. It 
may not mean pursuing worldly pleasures, or 
mixing with worldly sets ; but a subtler thing 
than that — a silent deference to worldly opinion ; 
an almost unconscious lowering of religious tone 
to the level of the worldly -religious world around ; 
a subdued resistance to the soul's delicate prompt- 
ings to greater consecration, out of deference to 
'' breadth " or fear of ridicule. These, and such 
things, are what Christ tells us we must hate. 
For these things are of the very essence of world- 
liness. •' If any man love the world," even in this 
sense, " the love of the Father is not in him." 

There are two ways of hating life, a true and a 
false. Some men hate life because it hates them. 
They have seen through it, and it has turned 
round upon them. They have drunk it, and 
come to the dregs ; therefore they hate it. This 
is one of the ways in which the man who loves his 
life literally loses it. He loves it till he loses it, 
then he hates it because it has fooled him. The 
other way is the religious. For religious reasons 
a man deliberately braces himself to the syste= 
matic hating of his life. '' No man can serve two 
masters, for either he must hate the one and love 
the other, or else he must hold to the one and 
despise the other." Despising the other — this is 

12 



178 MORTIFICATION. 

hating life, limiting life. It is not misanthropy, 
but Christianity. 

This principle, as has been said, contains the 
true philosophy of self-denial. It also holds the 
secret by which self-denial may be most easily 
borne. A common conception of self-denial is 
that there are a multitude of things about life 
which are to be put down with a high hand the 
moment they make their appearance. They are 
temptations which are not to be tolerated, but 
must be instantly crushed out of being with pang 
and effort. 

So life comes to be a constant and sore cutting 
off of things which we love as our right hand. 
But now suppose one tried boldly to hate these 
things? Suppose we deliberately made up our 
minds as to what things we were henceforth to 
allow to become our life ? Suppose we selected 
a given area of our environment and de- 
termined once for all that our correspondences 
should go to that alone, fencing in this area all 
round w^ith a morally impassable wall ? True, to 
others, we should seem to live a poorer life ; they 
would see that our environment was circum- 
scribed, and call us narrow because it was narrow. 
But, well-chosen, this limited life would be really 
the fullest life ; it would be rich in the highest 
and worthiest, and poor in the smallest and basest 
•correspondences. The well-defined spiritual life 
is not only the highest life, but it is also the most 
-easily lived. The whole cross is more easily 
carried than the half. It is the man who tries to 



MORTIFICATION, 179 

make the best of both worlds who makes nothing 
of either. And he who seeks to serve two 
masters misses the benediction of both. But he 
who has taken his stand, who has drawn a bounds 
ary line, sharp and deep about his religious life, 
who has marked off all beyond as forever for^ 
bidden ground to him, finds the yoke easy and the 
burden light. For this forbidden environment 
comes to be as if it were not His faculties falling 
out of correspondence, slowly lose their sensibili- 
ties. And the balm of Death numbing his lower 
nature releases him for the scarce disturbed com- 
munion of a higher life. So even here to die is 
gain. 



ETERNAL LIEE. 



" Supposing that man, in some form, is permitted to remain on 
the earth for a long series of years, ice merely lengthen out the 
period, hut we cannot escape the final catastrophe. The earth will 
gradually lose its energy of rotation, as well as that of revolution 
round the su7i. The sun himself icill ivax dim and become useless 
as a source of energy, until at last the favorable conditions of the 
present solar system will have quite disappeared. 

'' But tchat happens to our system will happen likewise to the 
whole visible universe, which will, if finite, become a lifeless mass, 
if indeed it be not doomed to utter dissolution. In fine, it will 
become old and effete, no less truly than the individual. It is a 
glorious garment, this visible universe, but not an immortal one. 
We must look elsewhere if we are to be clothed with immortality a$ 
with a garmenV^ 

The Unseen Univeksb. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 

" This is Life Eternal— that they might know Thee, 
the True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent." 
^-Jesus Christ. 

** Perfect correspondence would be perfect life. Were 
there no changes in the environment but such as the 
organism had adapted changes to meet, and were it 
never to fail in the efficiency with which it met them, 
there would be eternal existence and eternal knowl- 
edge."— Ser&eri Spencer. 

One of the most startling achievements of re- 
cent science is a definition of Eternal Life. To 
the religious mind this is a contribution of im- 
mense moment. For eighteen hundred years only 
one definition of Life Eternal was before the 
world. Now there are two. 

Through all these centuries revealed religion 
had this doctrine to itself. Ethics had a voice, as 
well as Christianity, on the question of the sum- 
mum honum ; Philosophy ventured to speculate on 
che Being of a God. Bat no source outside Chris- 
tianity contributed anything to the doctrine of 
Eternal Life. Apart from Revelation, this great 
truth was unguaranteed. It was the one thing in 
the Christian system that most needed verifica- 
tion from without, yet none was forthcoming. 
And never has any further light been thrown 

(183) 



1 84 ETERNAL LIFE. 

upon the question why in its very nature the 
Christian Life should be Eternal. Christianity 
itself even upon this point has been obscure. Its 
decision upon the bare fact is authoritative and 
specific. But as to what there is in the Spiritual 
Life necessarily endowing it with the element of 
Eternity, the maturest theolog}^ is all but silent. 

It has been reserved for modern biology at once 
to defend and illuminate this central truth of the 
Christian faith. And hence in the interests of 
religion, practical and evidential, this second and 
scientific definition of Eternal Life is to be hailed 
as an announcement of commanding interest. 
Why it should not 3^et have received the recogni- 
tion of religious thinkers — for already it has lain 
some years unnoticed — is not difficult to under- 
stand. The belief in Science as an aid to faith is 
not yet ripe enough to warrant men in searching 
there for witnesses to the highest Christian truths. 
The inspiration of Nature, it is thought, extends 
to the humbler doctrines alone. And yet the rev- 
erent inquirer who guides his steps in the right 
direction may find even now in the still dim twi- 
light of the scientific world much that will illumin- 
ate and intensify his sublimest faith. Here, at 
least, comes, and comes unbidden, the opportunity 
of testing the most vital point of the Christian 
system. Hitherto the Christian philosopher has 
remained content with the scientific evidence 
against Annihilation. Or, with Butler, he has 
reasoned from the Metamorphoses of Insects to a 
future life. Or again, with the authors of " The 



ETERNAL LIFE, 1 85 

Unseen Universe," the apologist has constructed 
elaborate, and certainly impressive, arguments 
upon the Lavr of Continuity. But now we may 
draw nearer. For the first time Science touches 
Christianity -positively on the doctrine of Immortal- 
ity. It confronts us with an actual definition of 
an Eternal Life, based on a full and rigidly accu- 
rate examination of the necessary conditions. 
Science does not pretend that it can fulfil these 
conditions. Its votaries make no claim to possess 
the Eternal Life. It simply postulates the requisite 
conditions without concerning itself whether any 
organism should ever appear, or does now exist, 
which might fulfil them. The claim of religion, 
on the other hand, is that there are organisms 
which possess Eternal Life. And the problem for 
us to solve is this : Do those who profess to pos- 
sess Eternal Life fulfil the conditions required by 
Science, or are they different conditions ? In a 
word. Is the Christian conception of Eternal Life 
scientific ? 

It may be unnecessary to notice at the outset 
that the definition of Eternal Life drawn up by 
Science was framed without reference to religion. 
>It must indeed have been the last thought with 
the thinker to whom we chiefly owe it, that in un- 
folding the conception of a Life in its very nature 
necessarily eternal, he was contributing to Theol- 
ogy- 
Mr. Herbert Spencer — for it is to him we owe 
it — would be the first to admit the impartiality of 
his definition ; and from the connection in which 



l86 ETERNAL LIFE, 

it occurs in his writings, it is obvious that religion 
was not even present to his mind. He is analyz- 
ing with minute care the relations between Envi- 
ronment and Life. He unfolds the principle ac- 
cording to which Life is high or low, long or short. 
He shows why organisms live and why they die. 
And finally he defines a condition of things in 
which an organism would never die — in which it 
would enjoy a perpetual and perfect Life. This 
to him is, of course, but a speculation. Life 
Eternal is a biological conceit. The conditions 
necessary to an Eternal Life do not exist in the 
natural world. So that the definition is alto- 
gether impartial and independent. A Perfect 
Life, to Science, is simply a thing which is theoret- 
ically possible — like a Perfect Vacuum. 

Before giving, in so many words, the definition 
of Mr. Herbert Spencer, it will render it fully in- 
telligible if we gradually lead up to it by a brief 
rehearsal of the few and simple biological facts 
on which it is based. In considering the subject 
of Death, we have formerly seen that there are 
degrees of Life. By this is meant that some lives 
have more and fuller correspondence with Environ- 
ment than others. The amount of correspond- 
ence, again, is determined by the greater or less 
complexity of the organism. Thus a simple or^ 
ganism like the Amoeba is possessed of very few 
correspondences. It is a mere sac of transparent 
structureless jelly for which organization has done 
almost nothing, and hence it can only communi- 
cate with the smallest possible area of Environ- 



ETERNAL LIFE, iS/ 

ment. An insect, in virtue of its more complex 
structure, corresponds with a wider area. Nature 
has endowed it with special faculties for reaching 
out to the Environment on many sides ; it has 
more life than the Amoeba. In other words, it is 
a higher animal. Man again, whose body is still 
further differentiated, or broken up into different 
correspondences, finds himself en rapport with his 
surroundings to a further extent. And therefore 
he is higher still, more living still. And this law, 
that the degree of Life varies with the degree of 
correspondence, holds to the minutest detail 
throughout the entire range of living things. Life 
becomes fuller and fuller, richer and richer, more 
and more sensitive and responsive to an ever- 
widening Environment as we rise in the chain of 
being. 

Now it will speedily appear that a distinct rela- 
tion exists, and must exist, between complexity 
and longevity. Death being brought about by the 
failure of an organism to adjust itself to some 
change in the Environment, it follows that those 
organisms which are able to adjust themselves 
most readily and successfully will live the longest. 
They will continue time after time to effect the 
appropriate adjustment, and their power of doing 
so will be exactly proportionate to their complexity 
—that is, to the amount of Environment they can 
control with their correspondences. There are, 
for example, in the Environment of every animal 
certain things w^hich are directly or indirectly 
dangerous to Life* If its equipment of cor* 



l88 ETERNAL LIFE, 

respondences is not complete enough to enable it 
to avoid these dangers in all possible circum- 
stances, it must sooner or later succumb. The 
organism then with the most perfect set of cor- 
respondences, that is, the highest and most com- 
plex organism, has an obvious advantage over less 
complex forms. It can adjust itself more per- 
fectly and frequently. But this is just the biolog- 
ical way of saying that it can live the longest. 
And hence the relation between complexity and 
longevity may be expressed thus — the most com- 
plex organisms are the longest lived. 

To state and illustrate the proposition con- 
versely may make the point still further clear. 
The less highly organized an animal is, the less 
will be its chance of remaining in lengthened cor- 
respondence with its Environment. At some time 
or other in its career circumstances are sure to 
occur to which the comparatively immobile organ- 
ism finds itself structurally unable to respond. 
Thus a Medusa tossed ashore by a wave, finds 
itself so out of correspondence with its new sur- 
roundings that its life must pay the forfeit. 
Had it been able by internal change to adapt it- 
self to external change — to correspond sufficiently 
with the new environment, as for example to 
orawl, as an eel would have clone, back into that 
environment with which it had completer cor- 
respondence — its life might have been spared. 
But had this happened it would continue to live 
henceforth only so long as it could continue in 
correspondence with all the circumstances in 



JttHRNAL LIFE. 1 89 

which it might find itself. Even if, however, it 
became complex enough to resist the ordinary and 
direct dangers of its environment, it might still be 
out of correspondence with others. A naturalist 
for instance, might take advantage of its want of 
correspondence with particular sights and sounds 
to capture it for his cabinet, or the sudden drop- 
ping of a yacht's anchor or the turn of a screw 
might cause its untimely death. 

Again, in the case of a bird in virtue of its 
more complex organization, there is command over 
a much larger area of environment. It can take 
precautions such as the Medusa could not ; it has 
increased facilities for securing food; its adjust- 
ments all round are more complex ; and therefore 
it ought to be able to maintain its Life for a 
longer period. There is still a large area, how- 
ever, over which it has no control. Its power of 
internal change is not complete enough to afford 
it perfect correspondence with all external changes, 
and its tenure of Life is to that extent insecure. 
Its correspondence, moreover, is limited even with 
regard to those external conditions with which it 
has been partially established. Thus a bird in 
ordinary circumstances has no difficulty in adapt- 
ing itself to changes of temperature, but if these 
are varied beyond the point at which its capacity 
of adjustment begins to fail — for example, during 
an extreme winter — the organism being unable to 
meet the condition must perish. The human 
organism, on the other hand, can respond to this 
external condition, as well as to countless other 



IQO ETERNAL LIFE. 

vicissitudes under which lower forms would inevi- 
tably succumb. Man's adjustments are to the 
largest known area of Environment, and hence he 
ought to be able furthest to prolong his Life. 

It becomes evident, then, that as we ascend in 
the scale of Life we rise also in the scale of lon- 
gevity. The lowest organisms are, as a rule, 
shortlived, and the rate of mortality diminishes 
more or less regularly as we ascend in the auimal 
scale. So extraordinary indeed is the mortality 
among lowly-organized forms that in most cases a 
compensation is actuallj" provided, nature endow- 
ing them with a marvellously increased fertility in 
order to guard against absolute extinction. Al- 
most all lower forms are furnished not only with 
great reproductive powers, but with different 
methods of propagation, by which, in various cir- 
cumstances, and in an incredibly short time, the 
species can be indefinitely multiplied. Ehrenberg 
found that by the repeated subdivisions of a siugie 
Paramecium^ no fewer than 268,000,000 similar 
organisms might be produced in one month. This 
power steadily decreases as we rise higher in the 
scale, until forms are reached in which one, two, 
or at most three, come into being at a birth. It 
decreases, however because it is no longer needed. 
These forms have a much longer lease of Life. 
And it may be taken as a rule, although it has 
exceptions, that complexity in animal organisms 
is always associated with longevity. 

It may be objected that these illustrations are 
taken merely from morbid conditions. But 



ETERNAL LIFE. 19I 

whether the Life be cut short by accident or by 
disease the principle is the same. All dissolution 
is brought about practically in the same way. A 
certain condition in the Environment fails to be 
met by a corresponding condition in the organism, 
and this is death. And conversely the more an 
organism in virtue of its complexit}^ can adapt 
itself to all the parts of its Environment, the 
longer it will live. " It is manifest a 'priori^' says 
Mr. Herbert Spencer, " that since changes in the 
physical state of the environment, as also those 
mechanical actions and those variations of avail- 
able food which occur in it, are liable to stop the 
processes going on in the organism ; and since the 
adaptive changes in the organism have the effects 
of directly or indirectly counterbalancing these 
changes in the environment, it follows that the 
life of the organism will be short or long, low or 
high, according to the extent to which changes in 
the environment are met by corresponding changes 
in the organism. Allowing a margin for pertur- 
bations, the life will continue only while the cor- 
respondence continues ; the completeness of the 
life will be proportionate to the completeness of 
the correspondence ; and the life will be perfect 
cnly when the correspondence is perfect." ^ 

We are now all but in sight of our scientific 
definition of Eternal Life. The desideratum is 
an organism with a correspondence of a very ex- 
ceptional kind. It must lie beyond the reach of 
those " mechanical actions" and those "variations 
^ "Principles of Biology/* p. 82. 



192 ETERNAL LIFE, 

of available food," which are " liable to stop the 
processes going on in the organism." Before we 
reach an Eternal Life we must pass beyond that 
point at which all ordinary correspondences inevi- 
tably cease. We must find an organism so high 
and complex, that at some point in its develop- 
ment it shall have added a correspondence which 
organic death is powerless to arrest. We must, in 
short, pass beyond that finite region where the cor- 
respondences depend on evanescent and material 
media, and enter a further region where the En- 
vironment corresponded with is itself Eternal. 
Such an Environment exists. The Environment 
of the Spiritual world is outside the influence of 
these " mechanical actions," which sooner or later 
interrupt the processes going on in all finite organ- 
isms. If then we can find an organism which has 
established a correspondence with the spiritual 
world, that correspondence will possess the ele- 
ments of eternity — provided only one other con- 
dition be fulfilled. 

That condition is that the Environment be per- 
fect. If it is not perfect, if it is not the highest, 
if it is endowed with the finite quality of change, 
there can be no guarantee that the Life of its cor- 
respondents will be eternal. Some change might 
occur in it which the correspondents had no adap- 
tive changes to meet, and Life would cease. But 
grant a spiritual organism in perfect correspond- 
ence with a perfect spiritual Environment, and 
the conditions necessary to Eternal Life are satis- 
fied. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 193 

The exact terms of Mr. Herbert Spencer's defi* 
nition of Eternal Life may now be given. And it 
will be seen that they include essentially the con- 
ditions here laid down. '' Perfect correspondence 
would be perfect life. Were there no changes in 
the environment but such as the organism had 
adapted changes to meet, and were it never to fail 
ill the efficiency with which it met them, there 
would be eternal existence and eternal knowl- 
edge." ^ Reserving the question as to the possible 
fulfilment of these conditions, let us turn for a 
moment to the definition of Eternal Life laid 
down by Christ. Let us place it alongside the. 
definition of Science, and mark the points of con- 
tact. Uninterrupted correspondence with a per- 
fect Environment is Eternal Life according to 
Science. " This is Life Eternal," said Christ, " that 
they may know Thee, the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent." ^ Life Eternal 
is to know God. To know God is to " correspond " 
with God. To correspond with God is to corres- 
pond with a Perfect Environment. And the or- 
ganism which attains to this, in the nature of 
things must live for ever. Here is " eternal ex- 
istence and eternal knowledge." 

The main point of agreement between the 
scientific and the religious definition is that Life 
consists in a peculiar and personal relation defined 
?s a " correspondence." This conception, that 
Life consists in correspondences, has been so abund- 

' "Principles of Biology," p. 88. 
2 John xvii. 

13 



1^4 ETERNAL LIFE, 

antly illustrated already that it is now unneces- 
sary to discuss it further. All Life indeed con- 
sists essentially in correspondences with various 
Environments. The artist's life is a correspond- 
ence with art ; the musician's with music. To cut 
them off from these Environments is in that re- 
lation to cut off their Life. To be cut off from 
all Environment is death. To find a new En- 
vironment again and cultivate relation with it is 
to find a new Life. To live is to correspond, and 
to correspond is to live. So much is true in 
Science. But it is also true in Religion. And it 
is of great importance to observe that to Religion 
also the conception of Life is a correspondence. 
No truth of Christianity has been more ignorantly 
or wilfully travestied than the doctrine of Im- 
mortality. The popular idea, in spite of a hun- 
dred protests, is that Eternal Life is to live for- 
ever. A single glance at the locus classictis, might 
have made this error impossible. There we are 
told that Life Eternal is not to live. This is Life 
Eternal — to know. And yet — and it is a notori- 
ous instance of the fact that men who are opposed 
to Religion will take their conceptions of its pro- 
foundest truths from mere vuglar perversions — 
this view still represents to many cultivated men 
the Scriptural doctrine of Eternal Life. From 
time to time the taunt is thrown at Religion, 
not unseldom from lips which Science ought to 
have taught more caution, that the Future Life 
of Christianity is simply a prolonged existence, 
an eternal monotony, a blind and indefinite con- 



ETEPNAL LIFE. I95 

tinuance of being. The Bible never could com- 
mit itself to any such empty platitude; nor could 
Christianity ever offer to the world a hope so 
colorless. Not that Eternal Life has nothing to 
do with everlastingness. That is part of the con- 
ception. And it is this aspect of the question 
that first arrests us in the field of Science. But 
even Science has more in its definition than 
longevity. It has a correspondence and an En- 
vironment ; and although it cannot fill up these 
terms for Religion, it can indicate at least the 
nature of the relation, the kind of thing that is 
meant by Life. Science speaks to us indeed of 
much more than numbers of years. It defines 
degrees of Life. It explains a widening Environ- 
ment. It unfolds the relation between a widen* 
ing Environment and increasing complexity in 
organisms. And if it has no absolute contribu- 
tion to the content of Religion, its analogies are 
not limited to a point. It yields to Immortality, 
and this is the most that Science can do in any 
case, the broad framework for a doctrine. 

The further definition, moreover, of this corre- 
spondence as hnoiving is in the highest degree 
significant. Is not this the precise quality in an 
Eternal correspondence which the analogies of 
Science would prepare us to look for? Longevity 
is associated with complexity. And complexity in 
organisms is manifested by the successive addition 
of correspondences, each richer and larger than 
those which have gone before. The differentiation, 
there forCs of the spirits. al organism ought to be 



196 ETERNAL LIFE. 

signalized by the addition of the highest possible cor- 
respondence. It is not essential to the idea that the 
correspondence should be altogether novel ; it is 
necessary rather that it should not. An al- 
together new correspondence appearing suddenly 
without shadow or prophecy would be a violation 
of continuity. What we should expect would be 
something new, and yet something that we were 
already prepared for. We should look for a fur- 
ther development in harmony with current devel- 
opments ; the extension of the last and highest 
correspondence in a new and higher direction. 
And this is exactly what we have. In the world 
with which biology deals, Evolution culminates in 
Knowledge. 

At whatever point in the zoological scale this 
correspondence, or set of correspondences, begins, 
it is certain there is nothing higher. In its stunted 
infancjT' merely, when we meet with its rudest be- 
ginnings in animal intelligence, it is a thing so 
wonderful, as to strike every thoughtful and 
reverent observer with awe. Even among the 
invertebrates so marvellously are these or kindred 
powers displayed, that naturalists do not hesitate 
now, on the ground of intelligence at least, to 
classify some of the humblest creatures next to man 
himself.^ Nothing in nature, indeed, is so unlike 
the rest of nature, so prophetic of what is bej'ond 
it, so supernatural. And as manifested in Man who 
crowns creation with his all-embracing conscioue- 

' Vide Sir John Lubbock's " Ants, Bees, and Wasps," 
pp. 1, 181. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 197 

ness, there is but one word to describe his know! 
edge ; it is Divine. If then from this point there 
is to be any further Evolution, this surely must be 
the correspondence in which it shall take place ? 
This correspondence is great enough to demand 
development ; and yet it is little enough to need 
it. The magnificence of what it has achieved 
relatively, is the pledge of the possibility of more ; 
the insignificance of its 'conquest absolutely in- 
volves the probability of still richer triumphs. If 
anything, in short, in humanity is to go on it 
must be this. Other correspondences may con- 
tinue likewise ; others, again, we can well afford 
to leave behind. But this cannot cease. This cor- 
respondence —or this set of correspondences, for it 
is very complex — is it not that to which men with 
one consent would attach Eternal Life ? Is there 
anything else to which they would attach it ? Is 
anything better conceivable, anything worthier, 
fuller, nobler, anything which would represent a 
higher form of Evolution or offer a more perfect 
ideal for an Eternal Life ? 

But these are questions of quality ; and the mo- 
ment we pass from quantity to quality we leave 
Science behind. In the vocabulary of Science. 
Eternity is only the fraction of a word. It means 
mere everlastingness. To Religion, on the other 
hand. Eternity has little to do with time. To 
correspond with the God of Science, the Eternal 
Unknowable, would be everlasting existence ; to 
correspond with " the true God and Jesus Christ," 
is Eternal Life. The quality of the Eternal Life 



198 ETERNAL LIFE. 

alone makes the heaven ; mere everlastingness 
might be no boon. Even the brief span of the 
temporal life is too long for those who spend its 
years in sorrow. Time itself, let alone Eternity, 
is all but excruciating to Doubt. And many be- 
sides Schopenhauer have secretly regarded con- 
sciousness as the hideous mistake and malady of 
Nature. Therefore we must not only have quan- 
tity of years, to speak in the language of the 
present, but quality of correspondence. When 
we leave Science behind, this correspondence also 
receives a higher name. It becomes communion. 
Other names there are for it, religious and theolog- 
ical. It may be included in a general expression, 
Faith ; or we may call it by a personal and specific 
term, , Love. For the knowing of a Whole so 
great involves the co-operation of many parts. 

Communion with God — can it be demonstrated 
in terms of Science that this is a correspondence 
which will never break ? We do not appeal to 
Science for such a testimony. We have asked 
for its conception of an Eternal Life ; and we 
have received for answer that Eternal Life would 
consist in a correspondence which should never 
cease, with an Environment which should never 
pass away. And yet what would Science demand 
of a perfect correspondence that is not met by 
this, the knowing of God? There is no other cor- 
respondence which could satisfy one at least of 
the conditions. Not one could be named which 
would not bear on the face of it the mark and 
pledge of its mortality. But this, to know God. 



' ETERNAL LIFE. I99 

stands alone. To know God, to be linked with 
God, to be linked with Eternity — if this is not the 
*' eternal existence " of biolog}', what can more 
nearly approach it ? And yet we are still a great 
way off — to establish a communication with the 
Eternal is not to secure Eternal Life. It must be 
assumed that the communication could be sus- 
tained. And to assume this would be to beg the 
question. So that we have still to prove Eternal 
Life. But let it be again repeated, we are not 
here seeking proofs. We are seeking light. We 
are merely reconnoitering from the furthest prom- 
ontory of Science if so be that through the haze 
we may discern the outline of a distant coast and 
come to some conclusion as to the possibility of 
landing. 

But, it may be replied, it is not open to any one 
handling the question of Immortality from the 
side of Science to remain neutral as to the question 
of fact. It is not enough to announce that he has 
no addition to make to the positive argument. 
This may be permitted with reference to other 
points of contact between Science and Religion, 
but not with this. We are told this question is 
settled — that there is no positive side. Science 
meets the entire conception of Immortality with a 
direct negative. In the face of a powerful con- 
sensus against even the possibility of a Future 
Life, to content oneself with saying that Science 
pretended to no argument in favor of it would be 
at once impertinent and dishonest. We must 



200 ETERNAL LIFE, % 

therefore devote ourselves for a moment to the 
question of possibility 

The problem is, with a material body and a 
mental organization inseparably connected with it, 
to bridge the grave. Emotion, volition, thought 
itself, are functions of the brain. When the brain 
is impaired, they are impaired. When the brain 
is not, they are not. Everything ceases with the 
dissolution of the material fabric ; muscular activ- 
ity and mental activity perish alike. With the 
pronounced positive statements on this point from 
many departments of modern Science we are all 
familiar. The fatal verdict is recorded by a hun- 
dred hands and with scarcely a shadow of qualifi- 
cation. ^' Unprejudiced philosophy is compelled 
to reject the idea of an individual immortality and 
of a personal continuance after death. With the 
decay and dissolution of its material substratum, 
through which alone it has acquired a conscious 
existence and become a person, and upon which it 
was dependent, the spirit must cease to exist." ^ 
To the same effect, Vogt : " Physiology decides defi- 
nitely and categorically against individual im- 
mortality, as against any special existence of the 
soul. The soul does not enter the foetus like the 
evil spirit into persons possessed, but is a product 
of the development of the brain, just as muscular 
activity is a product of muscular developmentt 
and secretion a product of glandular development." 
After a careful review of the position of recent 
Science with regard to the whole doctrine, IVU*- 
' Buchner: " Force and Matter," 3d ed., p. 232. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 20I 

Graham sums up thus : " Such is the argument of 
Science, seemingly decisive against a future Life. 
As we listen to her array of syllogisms, our hearts 
die within us. The hopes of men, placed in one 
scale to be weighed, seem to fly up against the 
massive weight of her evidence, placed in the 
other It seems as if all our arguments were vain 
and unsubstantial, as if our future expectations 
were the foolish dreams of children, as if there 
could not be any other possible verdict arrived at 
upon the evidence brought forward."^ 

Can we go on in the teeth of so real an obstruc- 
tion ? Has not our own weapon turned against 
us. Science abolishing with authoritative hand the 
very truth we are asking it to define ? 

What the philosopher has to throw into the 
other scale can be easily indicated. Generally 
speaking, he demurs to the dogmatism of the con- 
clusion. That mind and brain react, that the 
mental and the physiological processes are related, 
and very intimately related, is bej^ond controversy. 
But how they are related, he submits, is still 
altogether unknown. The correlation of mind 
and brain do not involve their identity. And not 
a few authorities accordingly have consistently 
hesitated to draw any conclusion at all. Even 
Biichner's statement turns out, on close examina- 
tion, to be tentative in the extreme. In prefacing 
his chapter on Personal Continuance, after a single 
sentence on the dependence of the soul and its 
manifestations upon a material substratum, he re- 
» '• The Creed of Science," p. 169. 



202 ETERNAL LIFE, 

marks, " Though we are unable to form a definite 
idea as to the liow of this connection, we are still 
by these facts justified in asserting, that the mode 
of this connection renders it apparently impossible 
that they should continue to exist separately."^ 
There is, therefore, a flaw at this point in the ., 
argument for materialism; It may not help the 
spiritualist in the least degree positively. He may 
be as far as ever from a theory of how conscious- 
ness could continue without the material tissue. 
But his contention secures for him the right of 
speculation. The path beyond ma}^ lie in hopeless 
gloom ; but it is not barred. He may bring for- 
ward his theory if he will. And this is something. 
For a permission to go on is often the most that 
Science can grant to Religion. 

Men have taken advantage of this loophole in 
various ways. And though it cannot be said that 
these speculations offer us more than a probabil- 
ity, this is still enough to combine with the deep- 
seated expectation in the bosom of mankind and 
give fresh lustre to the hope of a future life. 
Whether we find relief in the theory of a simple 
dualism ; whether with Ulrici we further define 
the soul as an invisible enswathement of the body, 
material jQt non-atomic ; whether, with the " Un- 
seen Universe," we are helped by the spectacle of 
known forms of matter shading off into an ever- 
growing subtilty, mobility, and immateriality; or 
whether, with Wundt, we regard the soul as " the 
ordered unity of many elements," it is certain 
1 "Force and Matter, "^ p. 251. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 203 

that shapes can be given to the conception of a 
correspondence which shall bridge the grave such 
as to satisfy minds too much accustomed to weigh 
evidence to put themselves off with fancies. 

But whether the possibilities of physiology or 
the theories of philosophy do or do not substan- 
tially assist us in realizing Immortality, is to 
Religion, to Religion at least regarded from the 
present point of view, of inferior moment. The 
fact of Immortality rests for us on a different 
basis. Probably, indeed, after all the Christian 
philosopher never engaged himself in a more 
superfluous task than in seeking along physiolog- 
ical lines to find room for a soul. The theory of 
Christianity has only to be fairly stated to make 
manifest its thorough independence of all the 
usual speculations on immortality. The theory is 
not that thought, volition, or emotion, as such 
are to survive the grave. The difficulty of hold- 
ing a doctrine is this form, in spite of what has 
been advanced to the contrary, in spite of the 
hopes and wishes of mankind, in spite of all the 
scientific and philosophical attempts to make it 
tenable, is still profound. No secular theory of 
personal continuance, as even Butler acknowl- 
edged, does not equally demand the eternity of the 
brute. No secular theory 'defines the point in the 
chain of Evolution at which organisms become 
endowed with Immortality. No secular theory 
explains the condition of the endowment, nor in- 
dicates its goal. And if we have nothing more 
to fan hope than the unexplored mystery of the 

H 



204 ETERNAL LIFE, 

whole region, or the unknown remainders among 
the potencies of Life, then, as those who have 
" hope only in this world," we are '' of all n^e^ the 
most miserable." 

When we turn, on the other hand, to the doc- 
trine as it came from the lips of Christ, we find 
ourselves in an entirely different region. He 
makes no attempt to project the material into the 
immaterial. The old elements, however refined 
and subtle as to their matter, are not in themselves 
to inherit the Kingdom of God. That which is 
flesh is flesh. Instead of attaching Immortality 
to the natural organism, He introduces a new and 
original factor which none of the secular, and few 
even of the theological theories, seem to take 
sufficiently into account. To Christanity, " he 
that hath the Son of God hath Life, and he that 
hath not the Son hath not Life." This, as we 
take it, defines the correspondence which is to 
bridge the grave. This is the clue to the nature 
of the Life that lies at the back of the spiritual 
organism. And this is the true solution of the 
mystery of Eternal Life. 

There lies a something at the back of the cor- 
respondences of the spiritual organism — just as 
there lies a something at the back of the natural 
correspondence. To say that Life is a correspond- 
ence is only to express the partial truth. There 
is something behind. Life manifests itself in cor- 
respondences. But what determines them ? The 
organism exhibits a variety of correspondences. 
What organizes them ? As in the natural, so in 



ETERNAL LIFE. 205 



the spiritual, there is a Principle of Life. We 
cannot get rid of that term. However clumsy, 
however provisional, however much a mere cloak 
for ignorance, Science as yet is unable to dispense 
with the idea of a Principle of Life. We must 
work with the word till we get a better. Now that 
which determines the correspondence of the 
spiritual organism is a Principle of Spiritual Life. 
It is a new and Divine Possession. He that hath 
the Son hath Life ; conversely, he that hath Life 
hath the Son. And this indicates at once the 
quality and the quantity of the correspondence 
which is to bridge the grave. He that hath Life 
hath the Son, He possesses the Spirit of the Son. 
That Spirit is, so to speak, organized within him 
by the Son. It is the manifestation of the new 
nature — of which more anon. The fact to note 
at present is that this is not an organic correspond- 
ence, but a spiritual correspondence. It comes 
not from generation, but from regeneration. The 
relation between the spiritual man and his En- 
vironment is, in theological language, a filial re- 
lation. With the new Spirit, the filial correspond- 
ence, he knows the Father and this is Life 
Eternal. This is not only the real relation, but 
the only possible relation : " Neither knoweth any 
man the Father save the Son, and he to whomso- 
ever the Son will reveal Him." And this on purely 
natural grounds. It takes the Divine to know the 
Divine — but in no more mysterious sense than it 
takes the human to understand the human. The 
analogy, indeed, for the whole field here has been 



206 ETE R:\AL life. 

finely expressed already by Paul: "What man/* 
he asks, " knoweth the things of a man, save the 
spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things 
of God knovreth no man, but the Spirit of God. 
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, 
but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know 
the things that are freely given to us of God." ^ 

It were idle, such being the quality of the new 
relation, to add that this also contains the guaran- 
tee of its eternity. Here at last is a correspond- 
ence which will never cease. Its powers in 
bridging the grave have been tried. The corre- 
spondence of the spiritual man possesses the super- 
natural virtues of the Resurrection and the Life. 
It is known by former experiment to have survived 
the " changes in the physical state of the en- 
vironment," and those "mechanical actions" and 
** variations of available food," which Mr. Herbert 
Spencer tells us are " liable to stop the processes 
going on in the organism." In short, this is a cor* 
respondence which at once satisfies the demands 
of Science and Religion. In mere quantity it is 
different from every other correspondence known- 
Setting aside everything else in Religion, every 
thing adventitious, local, and provisional ; dissect- 
ing into the bone and marrow we find this — a cor- 
respondence which can never break with an En- 
vironment which can never change. Here is a 
relation established with Eternity. The passing 
years lay no limiting hand on it. Corruption in- 
jures it not. It survives Death. It, and it only, 
' 1 Cor. ii. 11. 12. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 207 

will stretch beyond the grave and be found in- 
violate — 

" When the moon is old, 
And the stars are cold, 
And the books of the Judgment-day unfold.** 

The misgiving which will creep sometimes over 
the brightest faith has already received its expres- 
sion and its rebuke : " Who shall separate us from 
the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress, 
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, 
or sword ? " Shall these " changes in the physical 
state of the environment " which threaten death 
to the natural man destroy the spiritual? Shall 
death, or life, or angels, or principalities, or powers, 
arrest or tamper with his eternal correspondences? 
" Nay, in all these things we are more than con- 
querors through Him that loved us. For T am 
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ^ 

It may seem an objection to some that the "per- 
fect correspondence " should come to man in so^ 
extraordinary a way. The earlier stages in the^ 
doctrine are promising enough ; they are entirely 
m line with Nature. And if Nature had also 
furnished the "perfect correspondence " demanded 
for an Eternal Life the position might be unassail- 
aWe. But this sudden reference t'^ a something 
^ Kom. viii. 35~3r 



20S ETERNAL LIFE. 

outside the natural Environment destipys the 
continuity, and discovers a permanent weakness 
in the whole theory? 

To which there is a twofold reply. In the first 
place, to go outside what we call Nature is not to 
go outside Environment. Nature, the natural 
Environment, is only a part of Environment. 
There is another large part which, though some 
profess to have no correspondence with it, is not 
on that account unreal, or even unnatural. The 
mental and moral world is unknown to the plant. 
But it is real. It cannot be affirmed either that 
it is unnatural to the plant ; although it might be 
said that from the point of view of the Vegetable 
Kingdom it was supernatural. Things are natural 
or supernatural simply according to where one 
stands. Man is supernatural to the mineral ; God 
is supernatural to the man. When a mineral is 
seized upon by the living plant and elevated to 
the organic kingdom, no tresspass against Nature 
is committed. It merely enters a larger Environ- 
ment, which before was supernatural to it, but 
which now is entirely natural. When the heart 
of a man, again, is seized upon by the quickening 
Spirit of God, no further violence is done to 
natural law. It is another case of the inorganic, 
so to speak, passing into the organic. 

But, in the second place, it is complained as if 
it were an enormity in itself that the spiritual 
correspondence should be furnished from the 
spiritual world. And to this the answer lies in 
the same direction. Correspondence in any case 



ETERNAL LIFE. 209 

is the gift of Environment. The natural Environ- 
ment gives men their natural faculties; the spirit* 
ual affords them their spiritual faculties. It is 
natural for the spiritual Environment to supplj 
the spiritual faculties ; it would be quite unnatu- 
ral for the natural Environment to do it. The 
natural law of Biogenesis forbids it ; the moral 
fact that the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite 
is against it ; the spiritual principle that flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God renders 
it absurd. Not, however, that the spiritual facul- 
ties are, as it were, manufactured in the spiritual 
world and supplied ready-made to the spiritual 
organism — forced upon it as an external equip- 
ment. This certainly is not involved in saying 
that the spiritual faculties are furnished by the 
spiritual world. Organisms are not added to by 
accretion, as in the case of minerals, but by 
growth. And the spiritual faculties are organized 
in the spiritual protoplasm of the soul, just as 
other faculties are organized in the protoplasm of 
the body. The plant is made of materials which 
have once been inorganic. An organizing prin- 
ciple not belonging to their kingdom lays hold of 
them and elaborates them until they have corre- 
spondences with the kingdom to which the organ- 
izing principle belonged. Their original organ- 
izing principle, if it can be called by this name, 
was Crystallization ; so that we have now a dis- 
tinctly foreign power organizing in totally new and 
higher directions. In the spiritual world, simi- 
larly, we find an organizing principle at work 

14 



ETERNAL LIFE. 



among the materials of the organic kingdom, per- 
forming a further miracle, but not a different kind 
of miracle, producing organizations of a novei 
kind, but not by a novel method. The second 
process, in fact, is simply what an enlightened 
evolutionist would have expected from the first 
It marks the natural and legitimate progress of 
the development. And this in the line of the true 
Evolution — not the linear Evolution, which would 
look for the development of the natural man 
through powers alread}^ inherent, as if one were 
to look to Crystallization to accomplish the devel- 
opment of the mineral into the plant, — but that 
larger form of Evolution which includes among 
its factors the double Law of Biogenesis and the 
immense further truth that this involves. 

What is further included in this complex corre- 
spondence we shall have opportunity to illustrate 
afterwards.^ Meantime let it be noted on what 
the Christian argument for Immortality really rests. 
It stands upon the pedestal on which the theolo- 
gian rests the whole of historical Christianity — 
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

It ought to be placed in the forefront of all 
Christian teaching that Christ's mission on earth 
was to give men Life. '* I am come," He said, 
*^ that ye might have Life, and that ye might have 
it more abundantly." And that He meant literal 
Life, literal spiritual and Eternal Life, is clear 
from the whole course of His teaching and acting. 
To impose a metaphorical meaning on the com' 
^ Vide "Conformity to Type," page 287o 



riTERNAL LIFE. 



monest word of the New Testament is to violate 
every canon of interpretation, and at tlie same 
time to charge the greatest of teachers with per- 
sistently mystifying His hearers by an unusual use 
of so exact a vehicle for expressing definite 
thought as the Greek language, and that on the 
most momentous subject of which He ever spoke 
to men. It is a canon of interpretation, accord= 
ing to Alford, that '' a figurative sense of words is 
never admissible except when required by the 
context." The context, in most cases, is not only 
directly unfavorable to a figurative meaning, but 
in innumerable instances in Christ's teaching Life 
is broadly contrasted with Death. In the teaching 
of the apostles, again, we find that, without ex- 
ception, they accepted the term in its simple literal 
sense. Reuss defines the apostolic belief with his 
usual impartiality when — and the quotation is 
doubly pertinent here — he discovers in the apos- 
tle's conception of Life, first, " the idea of a real 
existence, an existence such as is proper to God and 
to the Word ; an imperishable existence — that is to 
say, not subject to the vicissitudes and imperfec- 
tions of the finite world. This primary idea is 
repeatedly expressed, at least in a negative form ; 
it leads to a doctrine of immortality, or, to speak 
more correctly, of life, far surpassing any that had 
been expressed in the formulas of the current 
philosophy or theology, and resting upon premises 
and conceptions altogether different. In fact, it 
can dispense both with the philosophical thesis 
of the immateriality or indestructibility of the 



212 ETERNAL LIFE, 

human soul, and with the theologicial thesis of a 
miraculous corporeal reconstruction of our person ; 
theses, the first of which is altogether foreign to 
the religion of the Bible, and the second abso- 
lutely opposed to reason." Second, " the idea of 
life, as it is conceived in this system, implies the 
idea of a power, an operation, a communication, 
since this life no longer remains, so to speak, latent 
or passive in God and in the Word, but through 
them reaches the believer. It is not a mental 
somnolent thing ; it is not a plant without fruit; 
it is a germ which is to find fullest development." ^ 

If we are asked to define more clearly what is 
meant by this mysterious endowment of Life, wt9 
again hand over the difficulty to Science. When 
Science can define the Natural Life and the Physi- 
cal Force we may hope for further clearness on 
the nature and action of the Spiritual Powers. 
The effort to detect the living Spirit must be at 
least as idle as the attempt to subject protoplasm 
to microscopic examination in the hope of dis- 
covering Life. We are warned, also, not to expect 
too much. " Thou canst not tell whence it cometh 
or whither it goeth." This being its quality, 
when the Spiritual Life is discovered in the 
laboratory it will possibly be time to give it up 
altogether. It may say, as Socrates of his soul, 
" You may bury me — if you can catch me." 

Science never corroborates a spiritual truth 
without illuminating it. The threshold of Eter- 

' *' History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic 
Age," vol. ii. p. 496. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 21 3 

nity is a place where many shadows meet. And 
the light of Science here, where everything is so 
dark, is welcome a thousand times. Many men 
would be religious if they knew where to begin ; 
many would be more religious if they were sure 
where it would end. It is not indifference that 
keeps some men from God, but ignorance. " Good 
Master, what must I do to inherit Eternal Life ? " 
is still the deepest question of the age. What is 
Religion ? What am I to believe ? What seek 
with all my heart and soul and mind ? — this is the 
imperious question sent up to consciousness from 
the depths of being in all earnest hours ; sent dowa 
again, alas, with many of us, time after time, 
unanswered. Into all our thought and work and 
reading this question pursues u.s. But the theories 
are rejected one by one ; the great books are re- 
turned sadly to their shelves, the years pass, and 
the problem remains unsolved. The confusion of 
tongues here is terrible. Every day a new 
authority announces himself. Poets, philosophers, 
preachers, try their hand on us in turn. New 
prophets arise, and beseech us for our soul's sake 
to give ear to them — at last in an hour of inspira- 
tion they have discovered the final truth. Yet 
the doctrine of yesterday is challenged by a fresh 
philosophy to-day ; and the creed of to-day will 
fall in turn before the criticism of to-morrow. 
Increase of knowledge increaseth sorrow. And 
at length the conflicting truths, like the beams of 
light in the laboratory experiment, combine in the 
mind to make total darkness. 



214 ETERNAL LIFE. 

But here are two outstanding authorities agreed 
- — not men, not philosophers, not creeds. Here is 
the voice of God and the voice of Nature. I can- 
not be wrong if I listen to theuL Sometimes 
when uncertain of a voice from its very loudness, 
we catch the missing syllable in the echo. In 
God and Nature we have Voice and Echo. When 
I hear both, I am assured. My sense of hearing 
does not betray me twice. I recognize the Voice 
in the Echo, the Echo makes me certain of the 
Voice ; I listen and I know. The question of a 
Future Life is a biological question. Nature may 
be silent on other problems of Religion ; but here 
tshe has a right to speak. The wiiole confusion 
around the cloctrine of Eternal Life has arisen 
from making it a question of Philosophy. We 
shall do ill to refuse a hearing to any speculation 
of Philosophy ; the ethical relations here espe- 
cially are intimate and real. But in the first in- 
stance Eternal Life, as a question of Life^ is a 
problem for Biology. The soul is a living organ- 
ism. And for any question as to the soul's Life 
we must appeal to Life-science. And what does 
the Life-science teach ? That if I am to inherit 
Eternal Life, I must cultivate a correspondence 
with the Eternal. This is a simple proposition^ 
for Nature is always simple. I take this proposi- 
tion, and, leaving Nature, proceed to fill it in. I 
search everywhere for a clue to the Eternal. I 
ransack literature for a definition of a correspond- 
ence between man and God. Obviously that can 
only come from one source. And the analogies 



ETERNAL LIFE. 215 

of Science permit us to apply to it. All knowl- 
edge lies in Environment. When I want to know 
about minerals 1 go to minerals. When I w^ant 
to know about flowers I go to flowers. And they 
tell me. In their own way they speak to me, each 
in its own way, and each for itself — not the 
mineral for the flower, which is impossible, nor the 
flower for the mineral, which is also impossible. 
So if I want to know about Man, I go to his part 
of the Environment. And he tells me about him- 
self, not as the plant or the mineral, for he is 
neither, but in his own way. And if I want to 
know about God, I go to His part of the Environ- 
ment. And he tells me about Himself, not as a 
Man, for He is not Man, but in His own way. 
And just as naturally as the flower and the mineral 
and the Man, each in their own Avay, tell me about 
themselves. He tells me about Himself. He very 
strangely condescends indeed in making things 
plain to me, actually assuming for a time the Form 
of a Man that I at my poor level may better see 
Him. This is my opportunity to know Him. 
This incarnation is God making Himself acces- 
sible to human thought — God o]oening to man the 
possibility of correspondence through Jesus 
Christ. And this correspondence and this Environ- 
ment are those I seek. He Himself assures me, 
*' This is Life Eternal, that they might know Thee, 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou 
has sent." Do I not now discern the deeper 
meaning in " Je8U% Christ whom Thou has sent ? " 
Do I not better understand with what vision and 



2l6 EYERNAL LIFE. 

rapture the profouiidest of the disciples exclaims, 
" The Son of God is come, and hath given us an 
understanding that we might know Him that is 
True?"^ 

Having opened correspondence with the Eternal 
Environment, the subsequent stages are in the line 
of all other normal development. We have but 
to continue, to deepen, to extend, and to enrich 
the correspondence that has been begun. And we 
shall soon find to our surprise that this is accom- 
panied by another and parallel process. The action 
is not all upon our side. The Environment also 
will be found to correspond. The influence of 
Environment is one of the greatest and most sub- 
stantial of modern biological doctrines. Of the 
power of Environment to form or transform or- 
ganisms, of its ability to develop or suppress 
function, of its potency in determining growth, 
and generally of its immense influence in Evolu- 
tion, there is no need now to speak. But Envi- 
ronment is now acknowledged to be one of the 
most potent factors in the Evolution of Life. 
The influence of Environment, too, seems to in- 
crease rather than diminish as we approach the 
higher forms of being. The highest forms are 
the most mobile ; their capacity of change is the 
greatest ; they are, in short, most easily acted on 
by Environment. And not only are the highest 
organisms the most mobile, but the highest parts 
of the highest organisms are more mobile than the 
lower. Environment can do little, comparatively, 
1 1 John V. 20. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 21/ 

in the direction of inducing variation in the body 
of a child; but how plastic is its mind ! How in- 
finitely sensitive is its soul ! How infallibly can 
it be tuned to music or to dissonance by the moral 
harmony or discord of its outward lot! How 
decisively indeed are we not all formed and 
moulded, made or unmade, by external circum- 
stance ! Might we not all confess with Ulysses, — 
" I am a part of all that I have met ? " 

Much more, then, shall we look for the influence 
of Environment on the spiritual nature of him 
who has opened correspondence with God. 
Reaching out his eager and quickened faculties to 
the spiritual world around him, shall he not be- 
come spiritual ? In vital contact with Holiness, 
shall he not become holy? Breathing now an 
atmosphere of ineffable Purity, shall he " miss 
becoming pure ? Walking with God from day to 
day, shall he fail to be taught of God? 

Growth in grace is sometimes described as a 
strange, mystical, and unintelligible process. It 
is mystical, but neither strange nor unintelligible. 
It proceeds according to Natural Law, and the lead- 
ing factor in sanctification is Influence of Environ- j 
ment. The possibility of it depends upon the f 
mobility of the organism ; the result, on the * 
extent and frequency of certain correspondences. 
These facts insensibly lead on to further sug- 
gestion. Is it not possible that these biological 
truths may carry with them the clue to a still 
profounder philosophy — even that of Regenera- 
tion ? 



2l8 ETERNAL LIFE. 



Evolutionists tell us that by the influence of en- 
vironment certain aquatic animals have become 
«adapted to a terrestrial mode of life. Breathing 
normally by gills, as the result and reward of a 
continued effort carried on from generation to 
generation to inspire the air of heaven direct, they 
have slowly acquired the lung-function. In the 
young organism, true to the ancestral type, the 
gill still persists — as in the tadpole of the com- 
mon frog. But as maturity approaches the true 
lung appears ; the gill gradually transfers its task 
to the higher organ. It then becomes atrophied 
and disappears, and finally respiration in the adult 
is conducted by lungs alone. ^ We may be far, in 
the meantime, from saying that this is proved. 
It is for those who accept it to deny the justice of 
the spiritual analogy. Is religion to them unsci- 
entific in its doctrine of Regeneration? Will the 
evolutionist who admits the regeneration of the 
frog under the modifying influence of a continued 
correspondence w^ith a new environment, care to 
question the possibility of the soul acquiring such 
a faculty as that of Prayer, the marvellous breath- 
ing-function of the new creature, when in contact 
with the atmosphere of a besetting God ? Is the 
change from the earthl}^ to the heavenly more 
mysterious than the change from the aquatic to 
the terrestrial mode of life ? Is Evolution to stop 

' Vide also the remarkable experiments of Fraulein v. 
Chauvin on the Transformation of tlie Mexican Axolotl 
into Amblystoma. — Weismann's "Studies in th« The- 
ory of Descent," vol. ii. pt. iii. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 219 

with the organic ? If it be objected that it has 
taken ages to perfect the function in the batrach- 
ian, the reply is, that it will take ages to perfect 
the function in the Christian. For every thou- 
sand years the natural evolution will allow for the 
development of its organism, the Higher Biology 
will grant its product millions. We have indeed 
spoken of the spiritual correspondence as already 
perfect — but it is perfect only as the bud is per- 
fect. " It doth not yet appear what it shall be," 
any more than it appeared a millfin years ago 
what the evolving batrachian would be. 

But to return. We have been dealing with the 
scientific aspects of communion with God. Insen- 
sibly, from quantity we have been led to speak 
of quality. And enough has now been advanced 
to indicate generally the nature of that corre- 
spondence with which is necessarily associated 
Eternal Life. There remain but one or two de- 
tails to which we must lastly, and very briefly, 
address ourselves. 

The quality of everlastingness belongs, as we 
have seen, to a single correspondence, or rather to 
a single set of correspondences. But it is appa- 
rent that before this correspondence can take full 
and final effect a further process is necessary. 
By some means it must be separated from all the 
other correspondences of the organism which do 
not share its peculiar quality. In this life it is 
restrained by these other correspondences. They 
may contribute to it, or hinder it; but the}^ are 
essentially of a different order. They belong not 



220 ETERNAL LIFE. 

to Eternity but to Time, and to this present 
world; and, unless some provision is made for 
dealing with them, they will detain the aspiring 
organism in this present world till Time is ended. 
Of course, in a sense, all that belongs to Time be- 
longs also to Eternity ; but these lower corre- 
spondences are in their nature unfitted for an 
Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their 
relation to their Environment, they would still 
not be Eternal. However opposed, apparently, to 
the scientific definition of Eternal Life, it is yet 
true that perfect correspondence with Environ- 
ment is not Eternal Life. A very important word 
in the complete definition is, in this sentence, 
omitted. On that word it has not been necessary 
hitherto, and for obvious reasons, to place any 
emphasis, but when we come to deal with false 
pretenders to Immortality we must return to it. 
Were the definition complete as it stands, it might, 
with the permission of the psycho-physiologist, 
guarantee the Immortality of every living thing. 
In the dog, for instance, the material framework 
giving way at death might leave the released 
canine spirit still free to inhabit the old Environ- 
ment. And so with every creature which had 
ever established a conscious relation with sur- 
rounding things. Now the difficulty in framing a 
theory of Eternal Life has been to construct one 
which will exclude the brute creation, draAving 
the line rigidly at man, or at least somewhere 
within the human race. Not that we need object 
to the Immortality of the dog, or of the whole in- 



ETERNAL LIFE. 221 

ferior creation. Nor that we need refuse a place 
to any intelligible speculation which would people 
the earth to-day with the invisible forms of all 
things that have ever lived. Only we still insist 
that this is not Eternal Life. And why? Be- 
cause their Environment is not Eternal. Their 
correspondence, however firmly established, is 
established with that which shall pass away. 
An Eternal Life demands an Eternal Environ- 
ment. 

The demand for a perfect Environment as well 
as for a perfect correspondence is less clear in Mr. 
Herbert Spencer's definition than it might be. 
But it is an essential factor. An organism might 
remain true to its Environment, but what if the 
Environment played it false? If the organism 
possessed the power to change, it could adapt it- 
self to successive changes in the Environment. 
And if this were guaranteed we should also have 
the conditions for Eternal Life fulfilled. But 
what if the Environment passed away altogether ? 
What if the earth swept suddenly into the sun ? 
This is a change of Environment against which 
there could be no precaution and for which there 
could be as little provision. With a changing 
Environment even, there must always remain the 
dread and possibility of a falling out of corre- 
spondence. At the best, Life would be uncertain. 
But with a changeless Environment — such as that 
possessed by the spiritual organism — the per- 
petuity of the correspondence, so far as the ex- 
ternal relation is concerned, is guaranteed. This 



222 ETERNAL LIFE. 

quality of permanence in the Environment dis- 
tinguishes the religious relation from every other. 
Why should not the musician's life be an Eternal 
Life ? Because, for one thing, the musical world, 
the Environment with which he corresponds, is 
not eternal. Even if his correspondence in itself 
could last eternally, the environing material things 
with which he corresponds must pass away. His 
soul might last forever — but not his violin. So 
the man of the world might last forever — but not 
the world. His Environment is not eternal ; nor 
are even his correspondences — the world passe th 
away and the lust thereof. 

We find, then, that man, or the spiritual man, is 
equipped with two sets of correspondences. One 
set possesses the quality of everlastingness, the 
other is temporal. But unless these are separated 
by some means the temporal will continue to im- 
pair and hinder the eternal. The final prepara- 
tion, therefore, for the inheriting of Eternal Life 
must consist in the abandonment of the non-eter- 
nal elements. These must be unloosed and dis- 
sociated from the higher elements. And this is 
effected by a closing catastrophe — Death. 

Death ensues because certain relations in the 
organism are not adjusted to certain relations in 
the Environment. There will come a time in each 
history when the imperfect correspondences of the 
organism will betray themselves by a failure to 
compass some necessary adjustment. This is why 
Death is associated with Imperfection. Death is 
the necessary result of Imperfection, and the 



ETERNAL LIFE. 22$ 

necessary end of it. Imperfect correspondence 
gives imperfect and uncertain Life. " Perfect cor- 
respondence," on the other hand, according to 
Mr. Herbert Spencer, would be "perfect Life." 
To abolish Death, therefore, all that would be 
necessary would be to abolish Imperfection. But 
it is the claim of Christianity that it can abolish 
Death. And it is significant to notice that it does 
so by meeting this very demand of Science— it 
abolishes Imperfection. 

The part of the organism which begins to get 
out of correspondence with the Organic Environ- 
ment is the only part which is in vital correspond 
ence with it. Though a fatal disadvantage to the 
natural man to be thrown out of correspondence 
with this Environment, it is of inestimable im- 
portance to the spiritual man. For so long as it 
is maintained the way is barred for a further 
Evolution. And hence the condition necessary 
for the further Evolution is that the spiritual be 
released from the natural. That is to say, the 
condition of the further Evolution is Deatn. 
Mors janua Vitce, therefore, becomes a scientific 
formula. Death, being the final sifting of all the 
correspondences, is the indispensable factor of 
the higher Life. In the la^nguage of Science, not 
less than of Scripture, " To die is gain." 

The sifting of the correspondences is done by 
Nature. This is its last and greatest contribution 
to mankind. Over the mouth of the grave the 
perfect and the imperfect submit to their final 



2 24 ETERNAL LIFE. 

\ separation. Each goes to its own — earth to earth, 
ashes to ashes, dust to dust, Spirit to Spirit. 
*' The dust shall return to the earth as it was ; and 
the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it." 



ENVIRONMENT. 



•s 



" When I talked with an ardent missionary and pointed out ta 
Mm that his creed found no support in my experience^ he replied: 
* It is not so in your experience, but is so in the other worldJ I 
answer : ' Other word f. There is no other uorld. God is one and 
omnipresent; here or nowhere is the whole fact? " 

Emebson. 



ENVIRONMENT. 

"Ye are complete in Him." — Paul. 

*' Whatever amount of power an organism expends in 
any shape is the correlate and equivalent of a power 
that was taken into it from without."— IZe?'6er^ Silencer. 

Students of Biography will observe that in 
all well-written Lives attention is concentrated 
for the first few chapters upon two points. We 
are first introduced to the family to which the 
subject of memoir belonged. The grandparents, 
or even the more remote ancestors, are briefly 
sketched and their chief characteristics brought 
prominently into A^ew. Then the parents them- 
selves are photographed in detail. Their appear- 
ance and physique, theh^ character, their disposi- 
tion, their mental qualities, are set before us in 
a critical analysis. And finally we are asked to 
observe how much the father and the mother re- 
spectively have transmitted of their peculiar 
nature to their offspring. How faithfully the an- 
cestral lines have met in the latest product, how 
mysteriously the joint characteristics of body and 
mind have blended, and how unexpected yet how 
entirely natural a recombination is the result — 
these points are elaborated with cumulative effect 
until we realize at last how little we are dealing 

(227) 



228 ENVIRONMENT. 

with an independent unit, how much with a sur- 
vival and reorganization of what seemed buried in 
the grave. 

In the second place, we are invited to consider 
more external influences — schools and school- 
masters, neighbors, home, pecuniary circumstances, 
scenery, and, by-and-by, the religious and political 
atmosphere of the time. These also, we are 
assured, have played their part in making the in- 
dividual what he is. We can estimate these early 
influences in any particular case with but small 
imagination if we fail to see how powerfully they 
also have moulded mind and character, and in 
what subtle ways they have determined the course 
of the future life. 

This twofold relation of the individual, first, to 
his parents, and second, to his circumstances, is 
not peculiar to human beings. These two factors 
are responsible for making all living organisms 
what they are. When a naturalist attempts to 
unfold the life-history of any animal, he proceeds 
precisely on these same lines. Biography is really 
a branch of Natural History ; and the biographer 
who discusses his hero as the resultant of these 
two tendencies, follows the scientific method as 
rigidly as Mr. Darwin in studying " Animals and 
Plants under Domestication." 

Mr. Darwin following Weismann, long ago 
pointed out that there are two main factors in all 
Evolution — the nature of the organism and the 
nature of the conditions. We have chosen our 
illustration from the highest or human species in 



ENVIRONMENT. 229 

order to define the meaning of these factors in the 
clearest way ; but it must be remembered that 
the development of man under these directive in- 
fluences is essentially the same as that of any 
other organism in the hands of Nature. We are 
dealing, therefore, with universal Law. It will 
still further serve to complete the conception of 
the general principle if we now substitute for the 
casual phrases by which the factors have been 
described the more accurate terminology of 
Science. Thus what Biography describes as pa- 
rental influences, Biology would speak of as Hered- 
ity ; and all that is involved in the second factor 
— the action of external circumstances and sur- 
roundings — the naturalist would include under 
the single term Environment. These two. Hered- 
ity and Environment, are the master-influences of 
the organic world. These have made all of us 
what we are. These forces are still ceaselessly 
playing upon all our lives. And he who truly 
understands these influences ; he who has decided 
how much to allow to each ; he who can regulate 
new forces as they arise, or adjust them to the 
old, so directing them as at one moment to make 
them co-operate, at another to counteract one 
another, understands the rationale of personal 
development. To seize continuously the oppor- 
tunity of more and more perfect adjustment to 
better and higher conditions, to balance some in- 
ward evil with some purer influence acting from 
without, in a word to make our Environment at 



230 ENVIRONMENT. 

the same time that it is making us, — these are the 
secrets of a well-ordered and successful life. 

In the spiritual world, also, the subtle influences 
which form and transform the soul are Heredity 
and Environment. And here especially where all 
is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is 
yet so ill-defined, it becomes of vital practical 
moment to clarify the atmosphere as far as pos- 
sible with conceptions borrowed from the natural 
life. Few things are less understood than the 
conditions of the spiritual life. The distressing 
incompetence of which most of us are conscious 
in trying to work out our spiritual experience is 
due perhaps less to the diseased will which we 
commonly blame for it than to imperfect knowl- 
edge of the right conditions. It does not occur 
to us how natural the spiritual is. We still strive 
for some strange transcendent thing ; we seek to 
promote life by methods as unnatural as they 
prove unsuccessful ; and only the utter incompre- 
hensibility of the whole region prevents us seeing 
fully — what we already half-suspect — how com-« 
pletely we are missing the road. Living in the 
spiritual world, nevertheless, is just as simple as 
living in the natural world ; and it is the same 
kind of simplicity. It is the same kind of sim- 
plicity for it is the same kind of world — there are 
not two kinds of worlds. The conditions of life 
in the one are the conditions of life in the other. 
And till these conditions are sensibly grasped, as 
the conditions of all life, it is impossible that the 
personal effort after the highest life should be 



ENVIRONMENT. 23 1 

other than a blind struggle carried on in fruitless 
sorrow and humiliation. 

Of these two universal factors, Heredity and 
Environment, it is unnecessary to balance the 
relative importance here. The main influence, 
unqestionably, must be assigned to the former. 
In practice, however, and for an obvious reason, 
we are chiefly concerned with the latter. What 
Heredity has to do for us is determined outside 
ourselves. No man can select his own parents. 
But every man to some extent can choose his own 
Environment. His relation to it, however largely 
determined by Heredity in the first instance, is 
always open to alteration. And so great is his 
control over Environment and so radical its influ- 
ence over him, that he can so direct it as either to 
undo, modify, perpetuate or intensify the earlier 
hereditary influences within certain limits. But 
the aspects of Environment which we have now 
to consider do not involve us in questions of such 
complexity. In what high and mj^stical sense, 
also. Heredity applies to the spiritual organism 
we need not just now inquire. In the simj)ler 
relations of the more external factor we shall find 
a large and fruitful field for study. 

The Influence of Environment may be investi- 
gated in two main aspects. First, one might dis- 
cuss the modern and very interesting question as 
to the power of Environment to induce what is 
known to recent science as Variation. A change 
in the surroundings of any animal, it is now well- 
known, can so react upon it as to cause it to 



232 ENVIRONMENT. 

change. By the attempt, conscious or uncon- 
scious, to adjust itself to the new conditions, a 
true physiological change is gradually wrought 
within the organism. Hunter, for example, in a 
classical experiment, so changed the Environment 
of a sea-gull by keeping it in captivity that it 
could only secure a grain diet. The effect was to 
modify the stomach of the bird, normally adapted 
to a fish diet, until in time it came to resemble 
in structure the gizzard of an ordinary grain- 
feeder such as the pigeon. Holmgren again re- 
versed this experiment by feeding pigeons for a 
lengthened period on a meat-diet, with the result 
that the gizzard became transformed into the car- 
nivorous stomach. Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace 
mentions the case of a Brazilian parrot which 
changes its color from green to red or yellow 
when fed on the fat of certain fishes. Not only 
changes of food, however, but changes of climate 
and of temperature, changes in surrounding or- 
ganisms, in the case of marine animals even 
changes of pressure, of ocean currents, of light, 
and of many other circumstances, are known to 
exert a pow^erful modifying influence upon living 
organisms. These relations are still being worked 
out in many directions, but the influence of En- 
vironment as a prime factor in Variation is now a 
recognized doctrine of science.^ 

' Vide Karl Semper's ** The Natural Conditions of Ex- • 
istence as they affect Animal Life ; " Wallace's ** Trop- 
ical Nature; " Weismann's "Studies in the Theory of 
Descent; " Darwin's ** Animals and Plants under 'Do- 
mestication." 



ENVIRONMENT. 233 

Even the popular mind has been struck with 
the curious adaptation of nearly all animals to 
their habitat, for example in the matter of color. 
The sandy hue of the sole and flounder, the white 
of the polar bear with its suggestion of Arctic 
snows, the stripes of the Bengal tiger — as if the 
actual reeds of its native jungle had nature- 
printed themselves on its hide ; — these, and a 
hundred others which will occur to every one, are 
marked instances of adaptation to Environment 
induced, by Natural Selection or otherwise, for 
the purpose, obviously in these cases at least, of 
protection. 

To continue the investigation of the modifying 
action of Environment into the moral and spir- 
itual spheres, would be to open a fascinating and 
suggestive inquiry. One might show how the 
moral man is acted upon and changed continu- 
ously by the influences, secret and open, of his 
surroundings, by the tone of society, by the com- 
pany he keeps, by his occupation, by the books he 
reads, by Nature, by all, in short, that constitutes 
the habitual atmosphere of his thoughts and the 
little world of his daily choice. Or one might go 
deeper still and prove how the spiritual life also 
is modified from outside sources — ^its health or 
disease, its growth or decay, all its changes for 
better or for worse being determined by the vary- 
ing and successive circumstances in which the 
religious habits are cultivated. But we must 
rather transfer our attention to a second aspect of 



234 ENVIRONMENT. 

Environment, not perhaps so fascinating but yet 
more important. 

So much of the modern discussion of Environ- 
ment revolves round the mere question of Varia- 
tion that one is apt to overlook a previous ques- 
tion. Environment as a factor in life is not 
exhausted when we have realized its modifying 
influence. Its significance is scarcely touched. 
The great function of Environment is not to 
modify but to sustain. In sustaining life, it is 
true, it modifies. But the latter influence is inci- 
dental, the former essential. Our Environment 
is that in which we live and move and have our 
being. Without it we should neither live nor 
move nor have any being. In the organism lies 
the principle of life ; in the Environment are the 
conditions of life. Without the fulfilment of 
these conditions, which are wholly supplied by 
Environment, there can be no life. An organism 
in itself is but a part ; Nature is its complement. 
Alone, cut off from its surroundings, it is not. 
Alone, cut off from my surroundings, I am not 
— physically I am not. I am, only as I am sus- 
tained. I continue only as I receive. My En- 
vironment may modify me, but it has first to keep 
me. And all the time its secret transforming 
power is indirectly moulding body and mind it is 
directly active in the more open task of minister- 
ing to my myriad wants and from hour to hour 
sustaining life itself. 

To understand the sustaining influence of En- 
vironment in the animal world, one has only to 










RALPH WALDO EMERSON 



ENVIRONMENT, 235 

recall what the biologist terms the extrinsic or 
subsidiary conditions T)f vitality. Every living 
thing normally requires for its development an 
Environment containing air, light, heat, and water. 
In addition to these, if vitality is to be prolonged 
for any length of time, and if it is to be accom- 
panied with growth and the expenditure of en- 
ergy, there must be a constant supply of food. 
When we simply remember how indispensable 
food is to growth and work, and when we further 
bear in mind that the food-supply is solely con- 
tributed by the Environment, we shall realize at 
once the meaning and the truth of the proposition 
that without Environment there can be no life. 
Seventy per cent, at least of the human body is 
made of pure water, the rest of gases and earths. 
These have all come from Environment. Through 
the secret pores of the skin two pounds of water 
are exhaled daily from every healthy adult. The 
supply is kept up by Environment. The Environ- 
ment is really an unappropriated part of ourselves. 
Definite portions are continuously abstracted from 
it and added to the organism. And so long as the 
organism continues to grow, act, think, speak, 
work, or perform any other function demanding a 
supply of energy, there is a constant, simultan- 
eous, and proportionate drain upon its surround- 
ings. 

This is a truth in the physical, and therefore in 
the spiritual, world of so great importance that we 
shall not mis-spend time if we follow it, for further 
confirmation, into another department of nature. 



236 ENVIRONMENT. 

Its significance in Biology is self-evident ; let U9 
appeal to Chemistry. 

When a piece of coal is thrown on the fire, we 
say that it will radiate into the room a certain 
quantity of heat. This heat, in the popular con« 
ception, is supposed to reside in the coal and to 
be set free during the process of combustion. In 
reality, however, the heat energy is only in part 
contained in the coal. It is contained just as 
truly in the coal's Environment — that is to say, in 
the oxygen of the. air. The atoms of carbon 
which compose the coal have a powerful affinity 
for the oxygen of the air. Whenever they are 
made to approach within a certain distance of one 
another, by the initial application of heat, they 
rush together with inconceivable velocity. The 
heat which appears at this moment, comes neither 
from the carbon alone, nor from the oxygen alone. 
These two substances are really inconsumable, 
and continue to exist, after they meet in a com- 
bined furm, as carbonic acid gas. The heat is due 
to the energy developed by the chemical embrace, 
the precipitate rushing together of the molecules 
of carbon and the molecules of oxygen. It comes, 
therefore, partly from the coal and partly from the 
Environment. Coal alone never could produce 
heat, neither alone could Environment. The twc, 
are mutually dependent. And although in nearly 
all the arts we credit everything to the substance 
which we can weigh and handle, it is certain that 
in most cases the larger debt is due to an invisible 
Environment. 



ENVIRONMENT. 237 

This is one of those great commonplaces which 
slip out of general reckoning bv reason of their 
very largeness and simplicity. How profound, 
nevertheless, are the issues which hang on this 
elementary truth, we shall discover immediately. 
Nothing in this age is more needed in every de- 
partment of knowledge than the rejuvenescence 
of the commonplace. ' In the spiritual world es- 
pecially, he will be wise who courts acquaintance 
with the most ordinary and transparent facts of 
Nature ; and in laying the foundations for a re- 
ligious life he will make no unworthy beginning 
who carries with him an impressive sense of so 
obvious a truth as that without Environment 
there can be no life. 

For what does this amount to in the spiritual 
world? Is it not merely the scientific re-state- 
ment of the reiterated aphorism of Christ, " With- 
out Me ye can do nothing ? " There is in the 
spiritual organism a principle of life ; but that is 
not self-existent. It requires a second factor, a 
something in which to live and move and have its 
being, an Environment. Without this it cannot 
live or move or have any being. Without En- 
vironment the soul is as the carbon without the 
oxygen, as the fish without the water, as the ani- 
mal frame without the extrinsic conditions of 
vitality. 

And what is the spiritual Environment ? It is 
God. Without this, therefore, there is no life, no 
thought, no energy, nothing — " without Me ye 
can do nothing." 



338 ENVIRONMENT. 

The cardinal error in the religious life is to 
attempt to live without an Environment. Spirit- 
ual experience occupies itself, not too much, but 
too exclusively, with one factor — the soul. We 
delight in dissecting this much tortured faculty, 
from time to time, in search of a certain some- 
thing which we call our faith — forgetting that 
faith is but an attitude, an empty hand for grasp- 
ing an environing Presence. And when we feel 
the need of a power by which to overcome the 
world, how often do we not seek to generate it 
within ourselves by some forced process, some 
fresh girding of the will, some strained activity 
which only leaves the soul in further exhaustion ? 
To examine ourselves is good ; but useless unless we 
also examine Environment. To bewail our weak- 
ness is right, but not remedial. The cause must 
be investigated as well as the result. And yet, 
because we- never see the other half of the prob- 
lem, our failures even fail to instruct us. After 
each new collapse we begin our life anew, but on 
the old conditions ; and the attempt ends as usual 
in the repetition — in the circumstances the inevi- 
table repetition — of the old disaster. Not that at 
times we do not obtain glimpses of the true state 
of the case. After seasons of much discourage^ 
ment, with the sore sense upon us of our abject 
feebleness, we do confer with ourselves, insisting 
for the thousandth time, " My soul, wait thou only 
upon God." But, the lesson is soon forgotten. 
The strength supplied we speedily credit to our 
own achievement ; and even the temporary success 



ENVIRONMENT. 239 

.'s mistaken for a symptom of improved inward 
vitality. Once more we become self-existent. 
Once more we go on living without an Environ- 
ment. And once more, after days of wasting 
without repairing, of spending without replenish- 
ing, we begin to perish with hunger, only return- 
ing to God again, as a last resort, when w^e have 
reached starvation point. 

Now why do we do this ? Why do we seek to 
breathe without an atmosphere, to drink without 
a well ? Why this unscientific attempt to sustain 
life for weeks at a time without an Environment? 
It is because we have never truly seen the neces- 
sity for an Environment. We have not been 
working with a principle. We are told to " w^ait 
only upon God," but we do not know why. 
It has never been as clear to us that without God 
the soul will die as that without food the body 
will perish. In short, we have never compre- 
hended the doctrine of the Persistence of Force. 
Instead of being content to transform energy we 
have tried to create it. 

The Law of Nature here is as clear as Science 
can make il7. In the words of Mr. Herbert 
Spencer, " It is a corollary from the primordial 
truth which, as we have seen, underlies all other 
truths, that whatever amount of power an organ- 
ism expends in any shape is the correlate and 
equivalent of a power that was taken into it from 
without."^ We are dealing here with a simple: 
question of dynamics. Whatever energy the souL 
' "Principles of Biology," p. 57. 



240 ENVIRONMENT. 

expends must first be " taken into it from with- 
out." We are not Creators, but creatures ; God 
is our refuge and strength. Communion with God, 
therefore, is a scientific necessity ; and nothing 
will more help the defeated spirit which is strug- 
gling in the wreck of its religious life than a com- 
mon-sense hold of this plain biological principle 
that without Environment he can do nothing. 
What he wants is not an occasional view, but a 
principle — a basal principle like this, broad, as 
the universe, solid as nature. In the natural 
world we act upon this law unconsciously. We 
absorb heat, breathe air, draw on Environment all 
but automatically for meat and drink, for the 
nourishment of the senses, for mental stimulus, 
for all that, penetrating us from without, can pro- 
long, enrich, and elevate life. But in the spirit- 
ual world we have all this to learn. W^e are- new 
creatures, and even the bare living has to be ac- 
quired. 

Now the great point in learning to live is to 
live naturally. As closely as possible we mus^ 
follow the broad, clear lines of the natural life. 
And there are three things especiarll}^ which it is 
necessary for us to keep continually in view. The 
first is that the organism contains within itself 
only one-half of what is essential to life ; the sec- 
ond is that the other half is contained in the En- 
vironment ; the third, that the condition of re- 
ceptivity is simple union between the organism 
and the Environment. 

Translated into the language of religion these 



ENVIRONMENT. 241 

propositions yield, and place on a scientific basis, 
truths of immense practical interest. To say, 
first, that the organism contains within itself only 
one-half of what is essential to life, is. to repeat 
the evangelical confession, so worn and yet so 
true to universal experience, of the utter helpless- 
ness of man. Who has not come to the conclu- 
sion that he is but a part, a fraction of some^ 
larger whole ? Who does not miss at every turn 
of his life an absent God ? That man is but a 
part, he knows, for there is room in him or more. 
That God is the other part, he feels, because at 
times He satisfies his need. Who does not trem- 
ble often under that sicklier symptom of his in- 
completeness, his want of spiritual energy, his 
helplessness with sin ? But now he understands 
both — the void in his life, the powerlessness of 
his will. He understands that, like all other 
energy, spiritual power is contained in Environ- 
ment. He finds here at last the true root of ail 
human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin. This 
is why " without Me ye can do nothing." Power- 
lessness is the normal state not only of this but 
of every organism — of every organism apart from 
its Environment. 

The entire dependence of the soul upon God is 
not an exceptional mystery, nor is man's helpless- 
ness an arbitrary and unprecedented phenomenon. 
It is the law of all Nature. The spiritual man is 
not taxed beyond the natural. He is not pur- 
posely handicapped by singular limitations or un- 
usual incapacities. God has not designedly made 
16 



242 ENVIRONMENT, 

the religious life as hard as possible. The ar- 
rangements for the spiritual life are the same as 
for the natural life. When in their hours of un- 
belief men. challenge their Creator for placing the 
obstacle of human frailty in the way of their highest 
development, their protest is against the order 
of nature. They object to the sun for being the 
source of energy and not the engine, to the car- 
bonic acid being in the air and not in the plant. 
They would equip each organism with a personal 
atmosphere, each brain with a private store of en- 
ergy ; they would grow corn in the interior of the 
body, and make bread by a special apparatus in 
the digestive organs. They must, in short, have 
the creature transformed into a Creator. The 
organism must either depend on his environment, 
or be self-sufficient. But who will not rather ap- 
prove the arrangement by which man in his crea- 
tural life may have unbroken access to an Infi- 
nite Power ? What soul will seek to remain self- 
luminous when it knows that •' The Lord God is 
a SunV Who will not willingly exchange his 
shallow vessel for Christ's well of living water ? 
Even if the organism, launched into being like a 
ship putting out to sea, possessed a full equip- 
ment, its little store must soon come to an end. 
But in contact with a large and bounteous En- 
vironment its supply is limitless. In every direc- 
tion its resources are infinite. 

There is a modern school which protests against 
the doctrine of man's inability as the heartless fic- 
tion of a past theology. While some forms of that 



ENVIRONMENT. 243 

dogma, to any one who knows man, are incapable 
of defence, there are others which, to any one 
who knows Nature, are incapable of denial. 
Those who oppose it, in their jealousy for human-* 
ity, credit the organism with the properties of 
Environment. All true theology, on the othei 
hand, has remained loyal to at least the root-idea 
in this truth. The New Testament is nowhere 
more impressive than where it insists on the fact 
of man's dependence. In its view the first step in 
religion is for man to feel his helplessness. Christ's 
first beatitude is to the poor in spirit. The con- 
dition of entrance into the spiritual kingdom is to 
possess the child-spirit — ^that state of mind com- 
bining at once the profoundest helplessness with 
the most artless feeling of dependence. Substan- 
tially the same idea underlies the countless pas- 
sages in which Christ affirms that He has not 
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance. And in that farewell discourse into which 
the Great Teacher poured the most burning con- 
victions of His life. He gives to this doctrine an 
ever increasing emphasis. No words could be 
more solemn or arresting than the sentence in the 
last great allegory devoted to this theme, "As the 
branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide 
in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide ia 
Me." The word here, it will be observed again, 
is cannoU It is the imperative of natural law. 
Fruit-bearing without Christ is not an improba- 
bility, but an impossibility. As well expect the 
natural fruit to flourish without air and heat, 



244 ENVIRONMENT. 

without soil and sunshine. How thoroughly also 
Paul grasped this truth is apparent from a hun- 
dred pregnant passages in which he echoes his 
Master's teaching. To him life was hid with 
Christ in God. And that he embraced this not as 
a theory but as an experimental truth we gather 
from his constant confession, " When I am weak, 
then I am strong." 

This leads by a natural transition to the second 
of the three points we are seeking to illustrate. 
We have seen that the organism contains within 
itself only one half of what is essential to life. 
We have next to observe, as the complement of 
this, how the second half is contained in the En- 
vironment. 

One result of the due apprehension of our per- 
sonal helplessness will be that we shall no longer 
waste our time over the impossible task of manu- 
facturing energy for ourselves. Our science will 
bring to an abrupt end the long series of severe 
experiments in which we have indulged in the 
hope of finding a perpetual motion. And having 
decided upon this once for all, our first step in 
seeking a more satisfactory state of things must 
be to find a new source of energy. Following 
Nature, only one course is open to us. We must 
refer to Environment. The natural life owes all 
to Environment, so must the spiritual. Now the 
Environment of the spiritual life is God. As 
Nature therefore forms the complement of the 
natural life, God is the complement of the spir- 
itual. 



ENVIRONMENT. 245 

The proof of this ? That Nature is not more 
natural to my bodj than God is to my soul. 
Every animal and plant has its own Environ- 
ment. And the further one inquires into the 
relations of the one to the other, the more one 
sees the marvellous intricacy and beauty of the 
adjustments. These wonderful adaptations of 
each organism to its surroundings — of the fish to 
the waiter, of the eagle to the air, of the insect to 
the forest-bed ; and of each part of every organ- 
ism — the fish's swim bladder, the eagle's eye, the 
insect^s breathing tubes — which the old argument 
from design brought home to us with such enthu- 
siasm, inspire us still with a sense of the bound- 
less resource and skill of Nature in perfecting her 
arrangements for each single life. Down to the 
last detail the world is made for what is in it ; 
and by whatever process things are as they are, 
all organisms find in surrounding Nature the 
ample complement of themselves. Man, too, 
finds in his Environment provision for all capaci- 
ties, scope for the exercise of every faculty, room 
for the indulgence of each appetite, a just supply 
for every want. So the spiritual man at the apex 
of the pyramid of life finds in the vaster range of 
his Environment a provision, as much higher, it is 
true, as he is higher, but as delicately adjusted to 
his varying needs. And all this is supplied to him 
just as the lower organisms are ministered to by 
the lower environment, in the same simple ways, 
in the same constant sequence, as appropriately 
and as lavishl}-. We fail to praise the ceaseless 



246 ENVIRONMENT, 

ministry of the great inanimate world around us 
only because its kindness is unobtrusive. Nature 
is always noiseless. All her greatest gifts are given 
in secret. And we forget how truly every good 
and perfect gift comes from without, and from 
above, because no pause in her changeless be- 
neficence teaches us the sad lessons of depriva- 
tion. 

It is not a strange thing, then, for the soul to 
find its life in God. This is its native air. God 
as the Environment of the soul has been from the 
remotest age the doctrine of all the deepest 
thinkers in religion. How profoundly Hebrew 
poetry is saturated with this high thought will ap- 
pear when we try to conceive of it with this left 
out. True poetry is only science in another form. 
And long before it was possible for religion to 
give scientific expression to its greatest truths, 
men of insight uttered themselves in psalms 
which could not have been truer to Nature had 
the most modern light controlled the inspiration. 
''As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so 
panteth my soul after Thee, O God." What fine 
sense of the analogy of the natural and the spir- 
itual does not underlie these words. As the hart 
after its Environment, so man after his ; as the 
water-brooks are fitly designed to meet the nat- 
ural wants, so fitly does God implement the spir- 
itual need of man. It will be noticed that in the 
Hebrew poets the longing for God never strikes 
one as morbid, or unnatural to the men who 
Uttered it. It is as natural to them to long for God 



ENVIRONMENT. 247 

as for the swallow to seek her nest. Throughout 
all their images no suspicion rises within us that 
they are exaggerating. We feel how truly they 
are reading themselves, their deepest selves. No 
false note occurs in all their aspiration. There is 
no weariness even in their ceaseless sighing, ex- 
cept the lover's weariness for the absent — if thej^ 
would fly away, it is only to be at rest. Men 
who have no soul can only wonder at this. Men 
who have a soul, but with little faith, can only 
envy it. How joyous a thing it was to the He- 
brews to seek their God! How artlessly they 
call upon Him to entertain them in His pavilion, 
to cover them with His feathers, to hide them in 
His secret place, to hold them in the hollow of 
His hand, or stretch around them the everlasting 
arms ! These men were true children of Nature. 
As the humming-bird among its^own palm-trees, 
as the ephemera in the sunshine of a summer 
evening, so they lived their joyous lives. And 
even the full share of the sadder experiences of 
life which came to all of them but drove them 
the further into the Secret Place, and led them 
with more consecration to make, as they expressed 
it, "the Lord their portion." All that has been 
said since from Marcus Aurelius to Swedenborg. 
from Augustine to Schleiermacher of a besetting- 
God as the final complement of humanity is but a 
repetition of the Hebrew poets' faith. And even 
the New Testament has nothing higher to offer 
man than this. The psalmist's " God is our 
refuge and strength " is only the earlier form, less 



248 ENVIRONMENT. 



defined, less practicable, but not less noble, of 
Christ's " Come unto Me, and I will give you 
rest." 

There is a brief phrase of Paul's which defines 
the relation with ahnost scientific accuracy, — " Ye 
are complete in Him." In this is summed up the 
whole of the Bible anthropology — the complete- 
ness of man in God, his incompleteness apart from 
God. 

If it be asked, In what is man incomplete, or. 
In what does God complete him ? the question is 
a wide one. But it may serve to show at least 
the direction in which the Divine Environment 
forms the complement of human life if we ask 
ourselves once more w^hat it is in life that needs 
complementing. And to this question we receive 
the significant answer that it is in the higher de- 
partments alone, or mainly, that the incomplete- 
ness of our life appears. The lower departments 
of Nature are already complete enough. The 
world itself is about as good a world as might be. 
It has been long in the making, its furniture is all 
in, its laws are in perfect working order ; and al- 
though wise men at various times have suggested 
improvements, there is on the whole a tolerably 
unanimous vote of confidence in things as they 
exist. The Divine Environment has little more 
to do for this planet, so far as we can see, and so 
far as the existing generation is concerned. Then 
the lower organic life of the world is also so far 
complete. God, through Evolution or otherwise, 
may still have finishing touches to add here and 



ENVIRONMENT. 249 

there, but already it is "all very good." It is 
difficult to conceive anything better of its kind 
than a lily or a cedar, an ant or an ant-eater. 
These organisms, so far as we can judge, lack 
nothing. It might be said of them, " they are 
complete in Nature." Of man also, of man the 
animal, it may be affirmed that his Environment 
satisfies him. He has food and drink, and good 
food and good drink. And there is in him no 
purely animal want which is not really provided 
for, and that apparently in the happiest possible 
way. 

But the moment we pass beyond the mere ani- 
mal life we begin to come upon an incomplete- 
ness. The symptoms at first are slight, and betray 
themselves only by an unexplained restlessness or 
a dull sense of want. Then the feverishness in- 
creases, becomes more defined, and passes slowly 
into abiding pain. To some come darker moments 
when the unrest deepens into a mental agony of 
which all the other woes of earth are mockeries — ■ 
moments when the forsaken soul can only cry in 
terror for the Living God. Up to a point the 
natural Environment supplies man's wants ; be- 
yond that it only derides him. How much in 
man lies beyond that point ? Very much — almost 
all, all that makes man man. The first suspicion 
of the terrible truth — so for the time let us call it 
— wakens with the dawn of the intellectual life. 
It is a solemn moment when the slow-moving 
mind reaches at length the verge of its mental 
horizon, and, looking over, sees nothing more. Its 



250 ENVIRONMENT. 

straining makes the abyss but more profound. Its 
cry comes back without an echo. Where is the 
Environment to complete this rational soul? Men 
either find one, — One — or spend the rest of their 
days in trying to shut their eyes. The alterna- 
tives of the intellectual life are Christianity or 
Agnosticism. The Agnostic is right when he 
trumpets his incompleteness. He who is not com- 
plete in Him must be for eyer incomplete. Still 
more grave becomes man's case when he begins 
further to explore his moral and social nature. 
The problems of the heart and conscience are in- 
finitely more perplexing than those of the intel- 
lect. Has love no future? Has right no triumph ? 
Is the -unfinished self to remain unfinished? 
Again, the alternatives are two, Christianity or 
Pessimism. But w^hen we ascend the further 
height of the religious nature, the crisis comes. 
There, without Environment, the darkness is un- 
utterable. So maddening now becomes the mys- 
tery that men are compelled to construct an En- 
vironment for themselves. No Environment here 
is unthinkable. An altar of some sort men must 
have — God, or Nature, or Law. But the anguish 
of Atheism is only a negative proof of man's in- 
completeness. A witness more overwhelming is 
the prayer of the Christian. What a very strange 
thing, is it not, for man to pray ? It is the sym- 
bol at once of his littleness and of his greatness. 
Here the sense of imperfection, controlled and 
silenced in the narrower reaches of his being, be- 
comes audible. Now he must utter himself. The 



ENVIRONMENT. 2 5 1 

sense of need is so real,. and the sense of Environ- 
ment, that he calls out to it, addressing it articu- 
lately, and imploring it to satisfy his need. Surely 
there is nothing more touching in Nature than 
this? Man could never so expose himself, so 
break through all constraint, except from a dire 
necessity. . It is the suddenness and unpremedi- 
tatedness of Prayer that gives it a unique value 
as an apologetic. 

Man has three questions to put to his Environ- 
ment, three symbols of his incompleteness. They 
come from three different centres of his being. 
The first is the question of the intellect. What is 
Truth? The natural Environment answers, "In- 
crease of Knowledge increaseth Sorrow," and 
*' Much study is a Weariness." Christ replies, 
*' Learn of Me, and ye shall find Rest." Contrast 
the world's word " Weariness " Avith Christ's word 
"Rest." No other teacher since the world began 
has ever associated "learn" with "Rest." Learn 
of me, says the philosopher, and you shall find 
Restlessness. Learn of Me, says Christ, and ye 
shall find Rest. Thought, which the godless man 
has cursed, that eternally starved yet ever-living 
spectre, finds at last its imperishable glory; 
Thought is complete in Him. The second ques- 
tion is sent up from the moral nature, Who will 
show us any good ? And again we have a con- 
trast : the world's verdict, " There is none that 
doeth good, no, not one ; " and Christ's, " There 
is none good but God only." And, finally, there 
is the lonel}' cry of the spirit, most pathetic and 



252 ENVIRONMENT. 

most deep of all, Where is he whom my soul 
seeketh ? And the yearning is met as before, " I 
looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there 
was no man that would know me ; refuge failed 
me ; no man cared for my soul. I cried unto 
Thee, O Lord : I said, Thou art my refuge and my 
portion in the land of the living." ^ 

Are these the directions in which men in these 
days are seeking to complete their lives ? The 
completion of Life is just now a sujDreme ques- 
tion. It is important to observe how it is being 
answered. If we ask Science or Philosophy they 
will refer us to Evolution. The struggle for Life, 
they assure us, is steadily eliminating imperfect 
forms, and as the fittest continue to survive we 
shall have a gradual perfecting of being. That is 
to say, that completeness is to be sought for in the 
organism — we are to be complete in Nature and 
in ourselves. To Evolution, certainly, all men 
will look for a further perfecting of Life. But it 
must be an Evolution which includes all the 
factors. Civilization, it may be said, \Yill deal 
with the second factor. It will improve the En- 
vironment step by step as it improves the organ* 
ism, or the organism as it improves the Environ- 
ment. This is well, and it will perfect Life up to. 
a point. But beyond that it cannot carry us. As 
the possibilities of the natural Life become 
more defined, its impossibilities will become the 
more appalling. The most perfect civilization 
irould leave the best part of us still incomplete. 
' Ps. cxlii. 4, 5. 



ENVIRONMENT. 



253 



Men will have to give up the experiment of at- 
tempting to live in half an Environment. Half 
an Environment will give but half a Life. Half 
an Environment? He whose corresporidences are 
with this world alone has only a thousandth part, a 
fraction, the mere rim and shade of an Environ- 
ment, and only the fraction of a Life. How long 
will it take Science to believe its own creed, that 
the material universe we see around us is only a 
fragment of the universe we do not see ? The very 
retention of the phrase ^^ Material Universe," we 
are told, is the confession of our unbelief and igno- 
rance ; since " matter is the less important half of 
the material of the physical universe." ^ 

The thing to be aimed at is not an organism 
self-contained and self-sufficient, however high in 
the scale of being, but an organism complete in 
the whole Environment. It is open to any one to 
aim at a self-sufficient Life, but he will find no en- 
couragement in Nature. The Life of the body 
may complete itself in the physical world; that is 
its legitimate Environment. The Life of the 
senses, high and low, may perfect itself in Nature. 
Even the Life of thought may find a large comple- 
ment in surrounding things. But the higher 
thought, and the conscience, and the religious Life, 
can only perfect themselves in God. To make 
the influence of Environment stop with the natural 
world is to doom the spiritual nature to death. 
For the soul, like the body, can never perfect it- 
self in isolation. The law for both is to be cona- 

^ The "Unseen Universe," 6th ed., p. 100. 



254 ENVIRONMENT. 

plete in the appropriate Environment. And the 
perfection to be sought in the spiritual world is a 
perfection of relation, a perfect adjustment of 
that which is becoming perfect to that which is 
perfect. 

The third problem, now simplified to a point, 
finally presents itself. Where do organism and 
Environment meet ? How does that which is 
becoming perfect avail itself of its perfecting En- 
vironment ? And the answer is, just as in Nature. 
The condition is simple receptivity. And yet 
this is perhaps the least simple of all conditions. 
It is so simple that we will not act upon it. But 
there is no other condition. Christ has condensed 
the whole truth into one memorable sentence, 
" As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except 
it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye 
abide in Me." And on the positive side, " He 
that, abideth in Me the same bringeth forth much 
fruit." 



CONFORMITY TO TYPR 



* • So careful of the type 9 ' hut no 

From scarped cliff and quarried stone 
She cries, ' A thousand types are gone, 
I care for nothing, all shall go. 

• Thou makest thine appeal to me ; 
I bring to life, I bring to death : 
The spirit does but mean thy breath : 
I know no more.'' And he, shall he^ 

Man, her last work, who seemed sofaUr^ 
Such splendid purpose in his eyes. 
Who rolVd the psalm to wintry sfciec 

Who built him fanes of fruitless prayw. 

Who trusted God was love indeed 
And love Creation^s final law — 
Tho^ Nature, red in tooth and claw 

With ravine., shrieked against his creed"^ 

Who loved, who suffered countless ills, 
Who battled for the True, the Just, 
Be blown about the desert dust 

Or seaVd within the iron hills ? " 



In Memoriax. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

' *^* Until Christ be formed in you.'*— Paul 

" The one end to which, in all living beings, the form* 
ative impulse is tending— the one scheme which the 
Archseus of the old speculators strives to carry out, 
seems to be to mould the offspring into the likeness of 
the parent. It is the first great law of reproduction, 
that the offspring tends to resemble its parent or par- 
ents more closely than anything else." — Huxley, 

If a botanist be asked the difference between an 
oak, a palm-tree, and a lichen, he will declare that 
they are separated from one another by the broad- 
est line known to classification. Without taking 
into account the outward differences of size and 
form, the variety of flower and fruit, the peculi- 
arities of leaf and branch, he sees even in their 
general architecture types of structure as distinct 
as Norman, Gothic and Egyptian. But if the 
first young germs of these three plants are placed 
before him and he is called upon to define the dif- 
ference, he finds it impossible. He cannot even say 
which is which. Examined under the highest 
powers of the microscope they yield no clue. 
Analyzed by the chemist with all the appliances 
of his laboratory they keep their secret. 

The same experiment can be tried with the em- 
bryos of animals. Take the ovule of the worm, the 
17 ,(257) 



258 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

eagle, the elephant, and of man himself. Let the 
most skilled observer apply the most searching 
tests to distinguish one from the other and he 
will fail. But there is something more surprising 
still. Compare next the two sets of germs, the 
vegetable and the animal. And there is still no 
shade of differenceo Oak and palm, worm and 
man all start life together. No matter into what 
strangely different forms they may afterwards de- 
velop, no matter whether they are to live on sea 
or land, creep or fly, swim or walk, think or vege- 
tate, in the embryo as it first meets the eye of 
Science they are indistinguishable. The apple 
which fell in Newton's garden, Newton's dog 
Diamond, and Newton himself, began life at the 
same point. ^ 

If we analyze this material point at which all 
life starts, we shall find it to consist of a clear 

1 " There is, indeed, a period in the development of 
every tissue and every living thing known to iis when 
there are actually no structural peculiarities whatever 
— when the whole organism consists of transparent, 
structureless, semi-fluid living bioplasm— when it would 
not be possible to distinguish the growing moving 
matter which was to evolve the oak from that which 
was the germ of a vertebrate animal. Nor can any dif- 
ference be discerned between the bioplasm matter of 
the lowest, simplest, epithelial scale of man's organism 
and that from which the nerve cells of his brain are to 
be evolved. Neither by studying bioplasm under the 
microscope nor by any kind of physical or chemical in- 
vestigation known, can we form any notion of the 
nature of the substance which is to be formed by the 
bioplasm, or what will be the ordinary results of the 
living."— "Bioplasm," Lionel S. Beale, F.R.S., pp. 17, 
18. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 259 

structureless jelly-like substance reserabling 
albutaen or white of ^gg. It is made of Carbon, 
Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Its name is 
protoplasm. And it is not only the structural 
unit with which all living bodies start in life, but 
with which they are subsequently built up. 
"Protoplasm," says Huxley, '' simple or nucleated, 
is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of 
the Potter." "Beast and fowl, reptile and fish, 
mollusk, worm and polype are all composed of 
structural units of the same character, namely, 
masses of protoplasm with a nucleus."^ 

What then determines the difference between 
different animals? What makes one little speck 
of protoplasm grow into Newton's dog Diamond, 
and another, exactly the same, into Newton him- 
self? It is a mysterious something which has 
entered into this protoplasm. No eye can see it. 
No science can define it. There is a different 
something for Newton's dog and a different 
something for Newton ; so that though both use 
the same matter they build it up in these widely 
different ways. Protoplasm being the clay, this 
something is the Potter. And as there is only 
one clay and yet all these curious forms are de- 
reloped out of it, it follows necessarily that the 
difference lies in the potters. There must in 
short be as many potters as there are forms. 
There is the potter who segments the worm, and 
the potter who builds up the form of the dog, and 
the potter who moulds the man. To understand 

1 Huxley: " Lay Sermons," 6th ed., pp. 127, 129. 



26o CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

unmistakably that it is really the potter who does 
the work, let us follow for a moment a description 
of the process by a trained eye-witness. The 
observer is Mr. Huxley. Through the tube of 
his microscope he is watching the development, 
out of a speck of protoplasm, of one of the com- 
monest animals : "Strange possibilities," he sa3's, 
" lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let a 
moderate supply of warmth reach its watery 
cradle and the plastic matter undergoes changes 
so rapid and yet so steady and purpose-like in 
their succession that one can only compare them 
to those operated by a skilled modeller upon a 
formless lump of cla}^ As with an invisible 
trowel the mass is divided and subdivided into 
smaller and smaller portions, until it is reduced 
to an aggregation of granules not too large to 
build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent or- 
ganism. And, then, it is as if a delicate finger 
traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal 
column, and moulded the contour of the body; 
pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the 
other, and fashioning flank and limb into due 
proportions in so artistic a waj^ that, after watch- 
ing the process hour by hour, one is almost invol- 
untarily possessed by the notion that some more 
subtle aid to vision than an achromatic would 
sho'y the hidden artist, with his plan before him, 
striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his 
work." ^ 

Besides the fact, so luminously brought cut 
1 Huxley : " Lay Sermons," 6th ed., p. 261. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 26 1 

here, that the artist is distinct from the " semi- 
fluid glob ale " of protoplasm in which he works, 
there is this other essential point to notice, that 
in all his '' skilful manipulation " the artist is not 
working at random, but according to law. He 
has ''his plan before him." In the zoological 
laboratory of Nature it is not as in a workshop 
where a skilled artisan can turn his hand to 
anything — where the same potter one day 
moulds a dog, the next a bird, and the next a 
man. In Nature one potter is set apart to make 
each. It is a more complete system of division 
of labor. One artist makes all the dogs, an- 
other makes all the birds, a third makes all the 
men. Moreover, each artist confines himself ex- 
clusively to working out his own plan. He appears 
to have his own plan somehow stamped upon 
himself, and his work is rigidly to reproduce him- 
self. 

The Scientific Law by which this takes place is 
the Law of Conformity to Type. It is contained, 
to a large extent, in the ordinary Law of Inher- 
itance ; or it may be considered as simply another 
way of stating what Darwin calls the Law of 
Unity of Type. Darwin defines it thus : " By 
Unity of Type is meant that fundamental agree- 
ment in structure which we see in organic beings 
of the same class, and which is quite independent 
of their habits of life."^ According to this law 
every living thing that comes into the world is 
compelled to stamp upon its offspring the image 
1 " Origin of Species," p. 166. 



262 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

of itself. The dog, according to its type, pro- 
duces a dog ; the bird a bird. 

The Artist who operates upon matter in this 
subtle way and carries out this law is Life. There 
are a great many different kinds of Life. If one 
might give the broader meaning to t?ie words of 
the apostle : '* All life is not the same life. There 
is one kind of life of men, another life of beasts, 
another of fishes, and another of birds." There 
is the Life, or the Artist, or the Potter who seg- 
ments the worm, the potter who forms the dog, 
the potter who moulds the man.^ 

What goes on then in the animal kingdom is 
this — the Bird-Life seizes upon, the bird-germ and 
builds it up into a. bird, the image of itself. The 
Reptile-Life seizes upon another germinal speck, 
assimilates surrounding matter, and fashions it 
into a reptile. The Reptile-Life thus simply makes 
an incarnation of itself. The visible bird is sim- 
ply an incarnation of the invisible Bird-Life. 

Now we are nearing the point where the spirit- 
ual analogy appears. It is a very wonderful 

' There is no intention here to countenance the old 
doctrine of the permanence of species. Whether the 
word species represent a fixed quantity or the reverse 
does not affect the question. The facts as stated are 
true in contemporary zoology, if not in palaeontology. 
It may also be added that the general conception of a 
definite Vital Principle is used here simply as a work- 
ing hypothesis. Science may yet have to give up what 
the Germans call the " ontogenetic directive Force." 
But in the absence of any proof to the contrary, and 
especially of any satisfactory alternative, we are justi* 
fied in working still with the old theory. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 263 

analogy, so wonderful that one almost hesitates to 
put it into words. Yet Nature is reverent ; and 
it is her voice to which we listen. These lower 
phenomena of life, she says, are but an allegory. 
There is another kind of Life of which Science as 
yet has taken little cognizance. It obeys the 
same laws. It builds up an organism into its own 
form. It is the Christ-Life. As the Bird-Life 
builds up a bird, the image of itself, so the Christ- 
Life builds up a Christ, the image of Himself, in 
the inward nature of man. When a man becomes 
a Christian the natural process is this : The Liv- 
ing Christ enters into his soul. Development be- 
gins. The quickening Life seizes upon the soul, 
assimilates surrounding elements, and begins to 
fashion it. According to the great Law of Con- 
formity to Type this fashioning takes a specific 
form. It is that of the Artist who fashions. And 
all through Life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, 
yet perfectly definite process, goes on " until 
Christ be formed " in it. 

The Christian Life is not a vague effort after 
righteousness — an ill -defined pointless struggle 
for an ill-defined pointless end. Religion is no 
dishevelled mass of aspiration, prayer, and faith. 
There is no more mystery in Religion as to its 
processes than in Biology. There is much mys- 
tery in Biology. We know all but nothing of 
Life yet, nothing of development. There is the 
same mystery in the spiritual Life But the great 
lines are the same, as decided, as luminous ; and 
the laws of natural and spiritual are the same, as 



264 CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 

unerring, as simple. Will everything else in the 
natural world unfold its order, and yield to 
Science more and more a vision of harmonj^ and 
Religion, which should complement and perfect 
all, remain a chaos ? From the standpoint of 
Revelation no truth is more obscure than Com- 
formity to Type. If Science can furnish a com- 
panion phenomenon from an every-day process of 
the natural life, it may at least throw this most 
mystical doctrine of Christianity into thinkable 
form. Is there any fallacy in speaking of the 
Embryology of the New Life ? Is the analogy 
invalid ? Are there not vital processes in the 
Spiritual as well as in the Natural world? The 
Bird being an incarnation of the Bird-Life, may 
not the Christian be a spiritual incarnation of the 
Christ-Life? And is there not a real justification 
in the processes of the New Birth for such a 
parallel ? 

Let us appeal to the record of these processes. 

In what terms does the New Testament de- 
scribe them ? The answer is sufficiently striking. 
It uses everywhere the language of Biology. It 
is impossible that the New Testament writers 
should have been familiar with these biological 
facts. It is impossible that their views of this 
great truth should have been as clear as Science 
can make them now. But they had no alterna- 
tive. There was no other way of expressing this 
truth. It was a biological question. So they 
struck out unhesitatingly into the new field of 
words, and, with an originality which commands 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 265 

both reverence and surprise, stated their truth 
with such light, or darkness, as they had. They 
did not mean to be scientific, only to be accurate, 
and their fearless accuracy has made them scien- 
tific. 

What could be more original, for instance, than 
the Apostle's reiteration that the Christian was a 
new creature, a new man, a babe ? ^ Or that this 
new man was " begotten of God," God's work- 
manship ? ^ And what could be a more accurate 
expression of the law of Conformity to Type 
than this : " Put on the new man, which is re- 
newed in knowledge after the image of Him that 
created him ? '' ^ Or this, " We are changed 
into the same image from glory to glory ? " ^ And 
elsewhere we are expressly told by the same 
writer that this Conformity is the end and goal 
of the Christian life. To work this Type in us is 
the whole purpose of God for man. " Whom 
He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be 
conformed to the image of His Son." ^ 

One must confess that the originality of this 
ertixe New Testament conception is most startling. 
Even for the nineteenth century it is most start- 
ling. But when one remembers that such an idea 
took form in the first, he cannot fail to be im- 
pressed with a deepening wonder at the system 
which begat and cherished it. Men seek the ori- 
gin of Christianity among the philosophies of 
that age. Scholars contrast it still with these 

1 2 Cor. V. 17. 2 1 joiin y. 18 ; 1 Pet. i. 3. 

^ » Col. iii. 9, 10. " 2 Cor. iii. 18. * Kom. viii. 29. 



266 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

philosophies, and scheme to fit it in to those of 
later growth. Has it never occurred to them 
how much more it is than a philosophy, that it in- 
cludes a science, a Bi*ology pure and simple ? As 
well might naturalists contrast zoology with chem- 
istry, or seek to incorporate geology with botany 
—the living with the dead — as try to explain the 
spiritual life in terms of mind alone. When wiU|^ 
it be seen that the characteristic of the Christian 
Religion is its Life, that a true theology must be- 
gin with a Biology ? Theology is the Science of 
God. Why will men treat God as inorganic ? 

If this analogy is capable of being worked out, 
we should expect answers to at least three ques- 
tions. 

First : What corresponds to the protoplasm in 
the spiritual sphere? 

Second : What is the Life, the Hidden Artist 
who fashions it ? 

Third : What do we know of the process and 
the plan ? 

First : The Protoplasm. 

We should be forsaking the lines of nature 
were we to imagine for a moment that the new 
creature was to be formed out of nothing. Ex 
nihilo nihil— liothmg can be made out of nothing. 
Matter is uncreatable and indestructible ; Nature 
and man can only form and transform. Hence 
when a new animal is made, no new clay is made. 
Life merely enters into already existing matter, 
assimilates more of the same sort and re-builds it. 
The spiritual Artist works in the same way. He 




THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 267 

must have a peculiar kind of protoplasm, a basis 
of life, and that must be already existing. 

Now He finds this in the materials of character 
with which the natural man is previously pro- 
vided. Mind and character, the will and the af- 
fections, the moral nature — these form the bases 
of spiritual life. To look in this direction for the 
protoplasm of the spiritual life is consistent with 
all analogy. The lowest or mineral world mainly 
supplies the material — and this is true even for 
insectivorous species — for the vegetable kingdom. 
The vegetable supplies the material for the ani- 
mal. Next in turn, the animal furnishes material 
for the mental, and lastly, the mental for the spir- 
itual. Each member of the series is complete 
only when the steps below it are complete ; the 
highest demands all. It is not necessary for the 
immediate purpose to go so far into the psychol- 
ogy either of the new creature or of the old as to 
define more clearly what these moral bases are. 
It is enough to discover that in this womb the new 
creature is to be born, fashioned out of the men- 
tal and moral parts, substance, or essence of the 
natural man. The only thing to be insisted upon 
is that in the natural man this mental and moral 
substance or basis is spiritually lifeless. However 
active the intellectual or moral life may be, from 
the point of view of this other Life it is dead. 
That which is flesh is flesh. It wants, that is to 
say, the kind of Life which constitutes the differ- 
ence between the Christian and the not-a-Christ- 
ian. It has not yet been '' born of the Spirit." 



268 CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 

To show further that this protoplasm possesses 
the necessary properties of a normal protoplasm 
it will be necessary to examine in passing what 
these properties are. They are two in number, 
the capacity for life and plasticity. Consider first 
the capacity for life. It is not enough to find an 
adequate supply of material. That material must 
be of the right kind. For all kinds of matter 
have not the power to be the vehicle of life — all 
kinds of matter are not even fitted to be the vehi- 
cle of electricity. What peculiarity there is in 
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, when 
combined in a certain way, to receive life, Ave can- 
not tell. We only know that life is always asso- 
ciated in Nature with this particular phj^sical 
basis and never with any other. But we are not 
in the same darkness with regard to the moral 
protoplasm. When we look at this complex com- 
bination which we have predicated as the basis 
of spiritual life, we do find something which 
gives it a peculiar qualification for being the pro- 
toplasm of the Christ-Life. We discover one 
strong reason at least, not only why tliis kind 
of life should be associated with this kind of pro- 
toplasm, but why it should never be associated with 
other kinds which seem to resemble it — why, for 
instance, this spiritual life should not be engrafted 
upon the intelligence of a dog or the instincts of 
an ant. 

The protoplasm in man has a something in ad- 
dition to its instincts or its habits. It has a ca- 
pacity for God. In this capacity for God lies its 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 269 

receptivity; it is the very protoplasm that was 
necessary. The chamber is not only ready to re- 
ceive the new Life, but the Guest is expected, 
and, till He comes, is missed. Till then the soul 
longs and yearns, wastes and pines, waving its ten- 
tacles piteously in the empty air, feeling after God 
if so be that it may find Him. This is not pecu- 
liar to the protoplasm of the Christian's soul. In 
every land and in every age there have been altars 
to the Known and tJnknown God. It is now 
agreed as a mere question of anthropology that 
the universal language of the human soul has 
always been " I perish with hunger." This is 
what fits it for Christ. There is a grandeur in 
this cry from the depths which makes its very un- 
happiness sublime. 

The other quality we are to look for in the soul 
is mouldableness, plasticity. Conformity demands 
conform ability. Now plasticity is not only a 
marked characteristic of all forms of life, but in a 
special sense of the highest forms. It increases 
steadily as we rise in the scale. Tlie inorganic 
world, to begin with, is rigid. A crystal of silica 
dissolved and redissolved a thousand times will 
never assume any other form than the hexagonal. 
The plant next, though plastic in its elements, is 
comparatively insusceptible of change. The very 
fixity of its sphere, the imprisonment for life in a 
single spot of earth, is the symbol of a certain 
degradation. The animal in all its parts is mobile, 
sensitive, free ; the highest animal, man, is the 
most mobile, the most at leisure from routine, the 



2/0 CONFORMITY TO 1 VPE. 

most impressionable, the most open for change. 
And when we reach the mind and sonl, this 
mobility is found in its most developed form. 
Whether we regard its susceptibility to impres- 
sions, its lightning-like response even to influences 
the most impalpable and subtle, its power of in- 
stantaneous adjustment, or whether we regard the 
delicacy and variety of its moods, or its vast 
powers of growth, we are forced to recognize in 
this the most perfect capacity for change. This 
marvellous plasticity of mind contains at once the 
possibility and prophecy of its transformation. 
The soul, in a word, is made to be co7iverted. 

Second, The Life. 

The main reason for giving the Life, the agent 
of this change, a separate treatment, is to empha- 
size the distinction between it and the natural 
man on the one hand, and the spiritual man on 
the other. The natural man is its basis, tlie spir- 
itual man is its product, the Life itself is some- 
thing different. Just as in an organism we have 
these three things — formative matter, formed mat- 
ter, and the forming principle or life ; so in the 
soul we have the old -nature, the renewed nature, 
and the transforming Life. 

This being made evident, little remains here to 
be added. No man has ever seen this Life. It 
cannot be analyzed, or weighed, or traced in its 
essential nature. But this is just what we ex- 
pected. This invisibility is the same property 
which we found to be peculiar to the natiiial life. 
We saw no life in the first embryos, in oak, in 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 2/1 

palm, or in bird. In the adult it likewise escapes 
us. We shall not wonder if we cannot see it in 
the Christian. We shall not expect to see it. A 
fortiori we shall not expect to see it, for we are 
further removed from the coarser matter — moving 
now among ethereal and spiritual things. It is be- 
cause it conforms to the law of this analogy so 
well that men, not seeing it, have denied its 
being. Is it hopeless to point out that one of the 
most recognizable characteristics of life is its un- 
recognizableness, and that the very token of its 
spiritual nature lies in its being beyond the gross- 
ness of our eyes ? 

We do not pretend that Science can define this 
Life to be Christ. It has no definition to give 
even of its own life, much less of this. But there 
are converging lines which point, at least, in the 
direction that it is Christ. There was One whom 
history acknowledges to have been the Truth. 
One of His claims was this, " I am the Life."^ 
According to the doctrine of Biogenesis, life can 
only come from life. * It was His additional claim 
that His function in the world was to give men 
Life. " I am come that ye might have Life, and 
that ye might have it more abundantly." This 
could not refer to the natural life, for men had 
that already. He that hath the Son hath another 
Life. " Know ye not your own selves how that 
Jesus Christ is in you." 

Again, there are men whose characters assume 
a strange resemblance to Him who was the Life. 
When we see the bird-character appear in an 



2/2 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

organism we assume that the Bird -Life has been 
there at work. And when we behold Conformity 
to Type in a Christian, and know moreover that 
the type-organization can be produced by the 
type-life alone does this not lend support to the 
hypothesis that the Type-Life also has been here 
at work ? If every effect demands a cause, what 
other cause is there for the Christian ? When we 
have a cause, and an adequate cause, and no other 
adequate cause ; when we have the express state- 
ment of that Cause that he is that cause, what 
more is possible ? Let not Science, knowing noth- 
ing of its own life, go further than to say it knows 
nothing of this Life. We shall not dissent from 
its silence. But till it tells us what it is, we wait 
for evidence that it is not this. 

Third, the Process. 

It is impossible to enter at length into any de- 
tails of tlie great miracle by which this proto- 
plasm is to be conformed to the Image of the Son. 
We enter that province now only so far as this 
Law of Conformity compels us. Nor is it so much 
the nature of the process we have to consider as 
its general direction and results^ We are dealing 
with a question of morphology rather than of 
physiology. 

It must occur to one on reaching this point, that 
a new element here comes in which compels us, 
for the moment, to part company with zoology. 
That element is the conscious power of choice. 
The animal in following the type is blind. It 
does not only follow the type involuntarily and 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 273 

compulsorily, but does not know that it is follow- 
ing it. We might certainly have been made to 
conform to the Type in the higher sphere with no 
more knowledge or power of choice than animals 
or automata. But then we should not have been 
men. It is a possible case, but not possible to the 
kind of protoplasm with which men are furnished. 
Owing to the peculiar characteristics of this pro- 
toplasm an additional and exceptional provision is 
essential. 

The first demand is that being conscious and 
having this power of choice, the mind should have 
an adequate knowledge of what it is to choose. 
Some revelation of the Type, that is to say, is nec- 
essary. And as that revelation can only come 
from the Type, we must look there for it. 

We are confronted at once with the Incarna- 
tion. There we find how the Christ-Life has 
clothed Himself with matter, taken literal flesh, 
and ^d welt among us. The Incarnation is the Life 
revealing the Type. Men are long since agreed 
that this is the end of the Incarnation — the re- 
vealing of God. But why should God be revealed? 
Why, indeed, but for man? Why but that "be- 
holding as in a glass the glory of the only begot- 
ten we should be changed into the same Image ? '* 

To meet the power of choice, however, some- 
thing more was necessary than the mere revela- 
tion of the Type — it was necessary that the Type 
should be the highest conceivable Type. In other 
words, the Type must be an Ideal. For all true 
human growth, effort, and achievement^ an ideal 
18 



274 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

is acknowledged to be indispensable. And all 
men accordingly whose lives are based on prin- 
ciple, have set themselves an ideal, more or less 
perfect. It is this which first deflects the will 
from what is base, and turns the wayward life to 
what is holy. So much is true as mere philosophy. 
But philosophy failed to present men with their 
ideal. It has never been suggested that Chris- 
tianity has failed. Believers and unbelievers have 
been compelled to acknowledge that Christianity 
holds up to the world the missing Type, the Per- 
fect Man. 

The recognition of the Ideal is the first step in 
the direction of Conformity. But let it be clearly 
observed that it is but a step. There is no vital 
connection between merely seeing the Ideal and 
being conformed to it. Thousands admire Christ 
who never become Christians, 

But the great question still remains, How is the 
Christian to be conformed to the Type, or as we 
should now say, dealing with consciousness, to the 
Ideal ? The mere knowledge of the Ideal is no 
more than a motive. How is the process to be 
practically accomplished? Who is to do it? 
Where, when, how? This is the test question of 
Christianity. It is here that all theories of Chris- 
tianity, all attempts to explain it on natural prin- 
ciples, all reductions of it to philosophy, inevita- 
bly break down. It is here that all imitations of 
Christianity perish. It is here, also, that personal 
religion finds its most fatal obstacle. Men are all 
quite clear about the Ideal. We are all con- 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 275 

vinced of the duty of mankind regarding it. But 
how to secure that willing men shall attain it — • 
that is the problem of religion. It is the failure 
to understand the dynamics of Christianity that 
has most seriously and most pitifully hindered its 
growth both in the individual and in the race. 

From the standpoint of biology this practical 
difficulty vanishes in a moment. It is probably 
the very simplicity of the law regarding it that 
has made men stumble. For nothing is so invis- 
ible to most men as transparency. The law here 
is the same biological law that exists in the nat- 
ural world. For centuries men have striven to 
find out ways and means to conform themselves 
to this type. Impressive motives have beeu pic- 
tured, the proper circumstances arranged, the 
direction of effort defined, and men have toiled, 
struggled, and agonized to conform themselves to 
the Image of the Son. Can the protoplasm con- 
form itself to its type ? Can the embryo fashion 
itself? Is Conformity to Type produced by the 
matter or ly the life., by the protoplasm or by the 
Type? Is organization the cause of life or the 
effect of it? It is the effect of it. Conformity 
to Type, therefore, is secured by the tj^pe. Christ 
makes the Christian. 

Men need only reflect on the automatic pro- 
cesses of their natural body to discover that this 
is the universal law of Life. What does any man 
consciously do, for instance, in the matter of 
breathing? What part does he take in circulat- 
ing the blood, in keeping up the rhythm of his 



2/6 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

heart? What control has he over growth ? What 
man by taking thought can add a cubit to his 
stature ? What part voluntarily does man take 
in secretion, in digestion, in the reflex actions? 
In point of fact is he not after all the veriest 
automaton, every organ of his body given him, 
ever}' function arranged for him, brain and nerve, 
thought and sensation, will and conscience, all 
provided for him ready made ? And yet he turns 
upon his soul, and wishes to organize that himself I 
O preposterous and vain man, thou who couldest 
not make a finger nail of thy body, thinkest thou 
io fashion this wonderful, mysterious, subtle soul 
of thine after the ineffable Image? Wilt thou 
ever permit thyself to he conformed to the Image 
of the Son? Wilt thou, who canst not add a 
cubit to thy stature, submit to he raised by the 
Type-Life within thee to the perfect stature of 
Christ? 

This is a humbling conclusion. And therefore 
men will resent it. Men will still experiment " by 
works of righteousness which they have done " to 
earn the Ideal life. The doctrine of Human In- 
ability, as the Church calls it, has always been ob- 
jectionable to men who do not know themselves. 
The doctrine itself, perhaps, has been partly to 
blame. While it has been often affirmed in such 
language as rightly to humble men, it has also been 
stated and cast in their teeth with words which 
could only insult them. Merely to assert dog- 
matically that man has no power to move hand or 
foot to help himself towards Christ, carries no real 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 277 



conviction. The weight of human authority is 
always powerless, and ought to be, where the in- 
telligence is denied a rationale. In the light of 
modern science when men seek a reason for every 
thought of God or man, this old doctrine with its 
severe and almost inhuman aspect — till rightly 
understood — must presently have succumbed. B ut 
to the biologist it cannot die. It stands to him on 
the solid ground of Nature. It has a reason in 
the laws of life which must resuscitate it and give 
it another lease of years. Bird-Life makes the 
Bird. Christ -Life makes the Christian. No man. 
by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature. 

So much for the scientific evidence. Here is 
the corresponding statement of the truth from 
Scripture. Observe the passive voice in these 
sentences : " Begotten of God ; " " The new man 
which is renewed in knowledge after the Image 
of Him that created him;" or this, "We are 
changed into the same Image ; '*' or this, " Predes- 
tinate to he conformed to the Image of His Son ; " 
or again, " Until Christ he formed in you ; " or 
"Except a man he horn a_^am he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God : " " Except a man he horn of 
water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the King- 
dom of God." There is one outstanding verse 
which seems at first sight on the other sides 
" Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling : " but as one reads on he finds, as if the 
writer dreaded the very misconception, the com- 
plement, " For it i« God which worketh in you 
both to will and to do of His good pleasure." 



2^^ CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

It will be noticed in these passages, and in others 
which might be named, that the process of trans- 
formation is referred indifferently to the agency 
of each 'Person of the Trinity in turn. We ar^ 
not concerned to take up this question of detaiL 
It is sufficient that the transformation is wrought- 
Theologians, however, distinguish thus: the indi- 
rect agent is Christ, the direct influence is the 
Holy Spirit. In other words, Christ by His Spirit 
renews the souls of men. 

Is man, then, out of the arena altogether? Is 
he mere clay in the hands of the potter, a machinef 
a tool, an automaton? Yes and No. If he were 
a tool he would not be a man. If he were a man 
he would have something to do. One need not 
seek to balance what God does here, and what man 
does. But we shall attain to a sufficient measure 
of truth on a most delicate problem if we make a 
final appeal to the natural life. We find that in 
maintaining this natural life Nature has a shiire 
and man has a share. By far the larger part is 
done for us — the breathing, the secreting, the 
circulating of the blood, the building up of the 
organism. And although the pa-rt which man 
plays is a minor part, yet, strange to say, it is not 
less essential to the well-being, and even to the 
being, of the whole. • For instance, man has to 
take food. He has nothing to do with it after he 
has once taken it, for the moment it passes his lips 
it is taken in hand by reflex actions and handed 
on from one organ to another, his control over it, 
in the natural course of things, being completely 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 279 

lost. But the initial act was bis. And without 
that nothing could have been done. Now whether 
there be an exact analogy between the voluntary 
and involuntary functions in the body, and tha 
corresponding processes in the soul, we do not at 
present inquire. But this will indicate, at least, 
that man has his own part to play. Let him 
choose Life; let him daily nourish his soul; let 
him forever starve the old life ; let him abide 
continuously as a living branch in the Vine, and 
the True- Vine Life will flow into his soul, assimi- 
lating, renewing, conforming to Type, till Ohrist, 
pledged by His own law, be formed in him. 

We have been dealing with Christianity at its 
most mystical point. Mark here once more its 
absolute naturalness. The pursuit of the Type is 
just what all Nature is engaged in. Plant and 
insect, fish and reptile, bird and mammal — these 
in their several spheres are striving after the Type. 
To prevent its extinction, to ennoble it, to people 
earth and sea and sky with it ; this is the mean- 
ing of the Struggle for Life. And this is our life 
— to pursue the Type, to populate the world with 
it. 

Our religion is not all a mistake. We are not 
visionaries. We are not " unpractical," as men 
pronounce us, when we worship. To try to follow 
Christ is not to be "righteous overmuch." True 
men are not rhapsodizing when they preach : nor 
do those waste their lives who waste themselves in 
striving to extend the Kingdom of God on earth. 
This is wliat life is for. The Christian in his life* 



280 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

aim is in strict line with Nature. What men call 
his supernatural is quite natural. 

Mark well also the splendor of this idea of 
salvation. It is not merely final ''safety," to be 
forgiven sin, to evade the curse. It is not, 
vaguely, " to get to heaven." It is to be conformed 
to the Image of the Son. It is for these poor 
elements to attain to the Supreme Beaut}^ The 
organizing Life being Eternal, so must this Beauty 
be immortal. Its progress towards the Immacu- 
late is already guaranteed. And more than all 
there .is here fulfilled tlie sublimest of all prophe- 
cies ; not Beauty alone but Unity is secured by 
the Type — Unity of man and man, God and 
man, God and Christ and man, till '* all shall be 
one." 

Could Science in its most brilliant anticipations 
for the future <Df its highest organism ever have 
foreshadowed a development like this ? Now that 
the revelation is made to it, it surely recognizes it 
as the missing point in Evolution, the climax to 
which all Creation tends. Hitherto Evolution 
had no future. It was a pillar with marvellous 
carving, growing richer and finer towards the top, 
but without a capital ; a pyramid, the vast base 
buried in the inorganic, towering higher and 
higher, tier above tier, life above life, mind above 
mind, ever more perfect in its workmanship, more 
noble in its symmetry, and yet withal so much 
the more mysterious in its aspiration. The most 
curious eye, following it upwards, saw nothing. 
The cloud fell and covered it. Just what men 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 28 1 

wanted to see was hid. The work of the ages 
had no apex. But the work begun by Nature is 
finished by the Supernatural — as we are wont to 
call the higher natural. And as the veil is lifted 
by Christianity it strikes men dumb with wonder. 
For the goal of Evolution is Jesus Christ. 

The Christian life is the only life that Avill ever 
be completed. Apart from Christ the life of man 
is a broken pillar, the race of men an unfinished 
pyramid. One by one in sight of Eternity all 
human Ideals fall short, one by one before the 
open grave all human hopes dissolve. The Lau- 
reate sees a moment's light in Nature's jealousy 
for the Type ; but that too vanishes. 

** * So careful of the type ? ' but no 

From scarped cliff and quarried stone 
She cries, ' A thousand types are gone ; 
I care for nothing, all shall go.' " 

All shall go ? No, one Type remains. " Whom 
He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be 
conformed to the Image of His Son." And 
" when Christ who is our life shall appear, theq 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory." 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 



" The Situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet 
occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, 
despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or 
nowhere is thy Ideal: work it out therefrom; and working ^ 
believe, live^ be free," 

Caelyle. 



• 



' SBMI-PARASITISM. 

"Work out your own salvation."— Pawl 

" Any new set of conditions occurring to an animal 
which render its food and safety very easily attained, 
seem to lead as a rule to degeneration." — E. Bay Lan- 
kester. 

Parasites are the paupers of Nature. They 
are forms of life which will not take the trouble 
to find their own food, but borrow or steal it from 
the more industrious. So deep-rooted is this 
tendency in Nature, that plants may become par- 
asitic — it is an acquired habit — as well as ani- 
mals ; and both are found in every state of beg- 
gary, some doing a little for themselves, while 
others, more abject, refuse even to prepare their 
own food. 

There are certain plants — the Dodder, for in- 
stance — which begin life with the best intentions, 
strike true roots into the soil, and really appear 
as if they meant to be independent for life. But 
after supporting themselves for a brief period 
they fix curious sucking discs into the stem and 
branches of adjacent plants. And after a little 
experimenting, the epiphyte finally ceases to do 
anything for its own support, thenceforth draw- 
ing all its supplies ready-made from the sap of its 

(285) 



286 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

host. In this parasitic state it has no need for 
organs of nutrition of its own, and Nature there- 
fore takes them away. Henceforth, to the botan- 
ist, the adult Dodder presents the degraded spec- 
tacle of a plant without a root, without a twig, 
without a leaf, and having a stem so useless as to 
be inadequate to bear its own weight. 

In the Mistletoe the parasitic habit has reached 
a stage in some respects lower still. It has per- 
sisted in the downward course for so maii}^ gen- 
erations that the young forms even have acquired 
the habit and usually begin life at once as para- 
sites. The Mistletoe berries, which contain the 
seed of the future plant, are developed spe- 
cially to minister to this degeneracy, for they 
glue tliemselves to the branches of some neigh- 
boring oak or apple, and there the young Mistle- 
toe starts as a dependent from the first. 

Among animals these lazzaroni are more largely 
represented still. Almost every animal is a living 
poor-house, and harbors one or more species of 
epizoa or entozoa^ supplying them gratis, not only 
with a permanent home, but with all the neces- 
saries and luxuries of life. 

Why does the naturalist think hardly of the 
parasites? Why does he speak of them as de- 
graded, and despise them as the most ignoble 
creatures in Nature ? What more can an animal 
do than eat, drink, and die to-morrow? If under 
the fostering care, and protection of a higher or- 
ganism it can eat better, drink more easily, live 
more merrily, and die, perhaps, not till the day 



SEMI-PARASrnSM. 2^7 

after, why should it not do so? Is parasitism, 
after all, not a somewhat clever ruse f Is it not 
an ingenious way of securing the benefits of life 
while evading its responsibilities ? And although 
this mode of livelihood is selfish, and possibly 
undignified, can it be said that it is immoral? 

The naturalist's reply to this is brief. Parasit- 
ism, he will say, is one of the gravest crimes 
in Nature. It is a breach of the law of Evolution. 
Thou shalt evolve, thou shalt develop all thy 
faculties to the full, thou shalt attain to the higii- 
est conceivable perfection of thy race — and so per- 
fect thy race — this is the first and greatest com- 
mandment of Nature. But the parasite has no 
thought for its race, or for perfection in any shape 
or form. It wants two things — food and shelter. 
How it gets them is of no moment. Eacli mem- 
ber lives exclusively on its own account, an iso- 
lated, indolent, selfish, and backsliding life. 

The remarkable thing is that Nature permits 
the community to be taxed in this way apparently 
without protest. For the parasite is a consumer 
pure and simple. And the " Perfect Economy of 
Nature " is surely for once at fault when it encour. 
ages species numbered by thousands which pro- 
duce nothing for their own or for the general good, 
but live, and live luxuriously, at the expense of 
others ? 

Now when we look into the matter, we very 
soon perceive that instead of secret!}- countenanc- 
ing this ingenious device by which parasitic ani- 
mals and plants evade the great law of the Strug- 



288 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

gle for Life, Nature sets her face most sternly 
against it. And, instead of allowing the trans' 
gressors to slip through her fingers, as one might 
at first suppose, she visits upon them the most 
severe and terrible penalties. The parasite, she 
argues, not only injures itself, but wrongs others. 
It disobeys the fundamental law of its own being, 
and taxes the innocent to contribute to its dis- 
grace. So that if Nature is just, if Nature has an 
avenging hand, if she holds one vial of wrath 
more full and bitter than another, it shall surely 
be poured out upon those who are guilty of this 
double sin. Let us see what form this punish- 
ment takes. 

Observant visitors to the sea-side, or let us say 
to an aquarium, are familiar with those curious 
little creatures known as Hermit-crabs. The 
peculiarity of the Hermits is that they take up 
their abode in the cast-off shell of some other ani- 
mal, not unusually the whelk ; and here, like 
Diogenes in his tub, the creature lives a solitary, 
but by no means an inactive life. 

The Pagurus^ however, is not a parasite. And 
yet although in no sense of the word a parasite, 
this way of inhabiting throughout life a house 
built by another animal approaches so closely the 
parasitic habit, that we shall find it instructive as 
a preliminar}^ illustration, to consider the effect 
of this free-house policy on the occupant. There 
is no doubt, to begin with, that, as has been al- 
ready indicated, the habit is an acquired one. In 
its general anatomy the Hermit is essentially a 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 289 

crab. Now the crab is an animal which, from the 
nature of its environment, has to lead a somewhat 
rough and perilous life. Its days are spent 
amongst jagged rocks and boulders. Dashed about 
by every wave, attacked on every side by monsters 
of the deep, the crustacean has to protect itself 
% developing a strong and serviceable coat of 
mail. 

How best to protect themselves has been the 
problem to which the whole crab family have ad- 
dressed themselves ; and, in considering the mat- 
ter, the ancestors of the Hermit-crab hit on the 
happy device of re-utilizing the habitations of the 
molluscs which lay around them in plenty, well- 
built, and ready for immediate occupation. For 
generations and generations accordingly, the Her- 
mit-crab has ceased to exercise itself upon ques- 
tions of safety, and dwells in its little shell as 
proudly and securely as if its second-hand house 
were a fortress erected especially for its private 
use. 

Wherein, then, has the Hermit suffered for this 
cheap, but real solution of a practical difficulty ? 
Whether its laziness costs it any moral qualms, or 
whether its cleverness becomes to it a source of 
congratulation, we do not know ; but judged from 
the appearance the animal makes under the search- 
ing gaze of the zoologist, its expedient is cer- 
tainly not one to be commended. To the eye of 
Science its sin is written in the plainest characters 
on its very organization. It has suffered in its 
own anatomical structure just by as much as it 

19 



290 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

has borrowed from an external source. Instead 
of being a perfect crustacean it has allowed cer- 
tain important parts of its body to deteriorate. 
And several vital organs are partially or wholly 
atrophied. 

Its sphere of life also is now seriously limited;, 
and by a cheap expedient to secure safety^ it has 
fatally lost its independence. It is plain from its 
anatomy that the Hermit-crab was not always a 
Hermit-crab. It was meant for higher things. 
Its ancestors doubtless were more or less perfect 
crustaceans, though what exact stage of develop- 
ment was reached before the hermit habit became 
fixed in the species we cannot tell. But from the 
moment the creature took to relying on an ex- 
ternal source, it began to fall. It slowly lost in 
its own person all that it now draws from external 
aid. 

As an important item in the day's work, namely, 
the securing of safety and shelter, was now 
guaranteed to it, one of the chief inducements to 
a life of high and vigilant effort was at the same 
time withdrawn. A number of functions, in fact, 
struck work. The whole of the parts, therefore, 
of the complex organism which ministered totliese 
functions, from lack of exercise, or total disuse, 
became gradually feeble ; and ultimately, by the 
stern law that an unused organ must suffer a slow 
but inevitable atrophy, the creature not only lost 
all power of motion in these parts, but lost the 
parts themselves, and otherwise sank into a rela- 
tively degenerate condition. 



SEMI-PA RA SITISM. 



Every normal crustacean, on the other hand, 
has the abdommal region of the body covered by 
a thick chitiDous shell. In the Hermits this is 
• represented only by a thin and delicate membrane 
— =of which the sorry figure the creature cuts when 
drawn from its foreign hidiug-place is sufficient 
evidence. Any one who now examines further 
this half-naked and woe-begone object, will per- 
ceive also that the fourth and fifth pair of limbs 
are either so small and wasted as to be quite use- 
less or altogether rudimentary ; and, although 
certainly the additional development of the extrem- 
ity of the tail into an organ for holding on to 
its extemporized retreat may be regarded as a 
slight compensation, it is clear from the whole 
structure of the animal that it has allowed itself 
to undergo severe Degeneration. 

In dealing with the Hermit-crab, in short, we 
are dealing w^ith a case of physiological backslid- 
ing. That the creature has lost anything by this 
process from a practical point of view is not now 
argued. It might fairly be shown, as already in- 
dicated, that its freedom is impaired by its cum- 
brous eko-skeleton, and that, in contrast with other 
crabs, who lead a free and roving life, its independ- 
ence generally is greatly limited. But from the 
physiological standpoint, there is no question that 
the Hermit tribe have neither discharged their 
responsibilities to Nature nor to themselves. If 
the end of life is merely to escape death, and 
serve themselves, possibly they have done well ; 



292 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

but if it is to attain an ever increasing perfection, 
then are they backsliders indeed. 

A zoologist's verdict would be that by this act 
they have forfeited to some extent their place in' 
the animal scale. An animal is classed as low or 
high according as it is adapted to less or more 
complex conditions of life. This is the true 
standpoint from which to judge all living organisms. 
Were perfection merely a matter of continual 
eating and drinking, the Amoeba — the lowest 
known organism — might take rank with the 
highest, Man, for the one nourishes itself and saves 
its skin almost as completely as the other. But 
judged by the higher standard of Complexity, that 
is, by greater or lesser adaptation to more or less 
complex conditions, the gulf between them is in- 
finite. 

We have now received a preliminary idea, al- 
though not from the study of a true parasite, of 
the essential principles involved in parasitism. 
And we may proceed to point out the correl- 
ative in the moral and spiritual spheres. We 
confine ourselves for the present to one point. 
The difference between the Hermit-crab and a true 
parasite is, that the former has acquired a semi- 
parasitic habit only with reference to safety. It 
may be that the Hermit devours as a preliminary 
the accommodating mollusc whose tenement it 
covets ; but it would become a real parasite only 
on the supposition that the whelk was of such 
size as to keep providing for it throughout life, and 
that the external and internal organs of the crab 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 293 

should disappear, while it lived henceforth, by 
" simple imbibation, upon the elaborated juices of 
its host. All the mollusc provides, however, for 
the crustacean in this instance is safety, and, 
accordingly in the meantime we limit our applica- 
tion to this. The true parasite presents us with 
-an organism so much more degraded in all its 
parts, that its lessons may well be reserved until 
we have paved the way to understand the deeper 
bearings of the subject. 

The spiritual principle to be illustrated in the 
meantime stands thus : Any principle which secures 
the safety of the individual ivithout personal effort 
or the vital exercise of facidty is disastrous to 
moral character. We do not begin by attempting 
to define words. Were we to define truly what is 
meant by safety or salvation, we should be spared 
further elaboration, and the law would stand out 
as a sententious common-place. But we have to 
deal with the ideas of safety as tliese are popularly 
held, and the chief purpose at this stage is to ex- 
pose what may be called the Parasitic Doctrine of 
Salvation. The phases of religious experience 
about to be described may be unknown to many. 
It remains for those who are familiar with the 
religious conceptions of the masses to determine 
whether or not we are wasting words. 

What is meant by the Parasitic Doctrine of 
Salvation one may, perhaps, best explain by 
sketching two of its leading t}^es. The first is 
the doctrine of the Church of Rome ; the second, 
that represented by the narrower Evangelical 



294 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

Religion. We take these religions, however, not 
in their ideal form, with which possibly we should 
have little quarrel, but in their practical working, 
or in the form in which they are held especially 
by the rank and file of those who belong respect- 
ively to these communions. For the strength or 
weakness of any religious system is best judged 
from the form in which it presents itself to, and 
influences the common mind. 

No more perfect or more sad example of semi- 
parasitism exists than in the case of those illiter- 
ate thousands who, scattered everywhere through- 
out the habita*ble globe, swell the lower ranks of 
the Church of Rome. Had an organization been 
specially designed, indeed, to induce the parasitic 
habit in the souls of men, nothing better fitted to 
its disastrous end could be established than the 
S3^stem of Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholi- 
cism offers to the masses a molluscan shell. They 
have simply to shelter themselves within iis pale, 
and they are "safe.'' But what is this "safe?" 
It is an external safety — the safety of an institu- 
tion. It is a salvation recommended to men by 
all that appeals to the motives in most common 
use with the vulgar and the superstitious, but 
which has as little vital connection with the indi- 
vidual soul as the dead whelk's shell with the liv- 
ing Hermit. Salvation is a relation at once vital, 
personal, and spiritual. This is mechanical and 
purely external. And this is of course the final 
secret of its marvellous success and world-wide 
power. A cheap religion is the desideratum of 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 295 

the human heart ; and an assurance of salvation 
at the smallest possible cost forms the tempting 
bait held out to a conscience-stricken world by 
the Romish Church. Thousands, therefore, who 
have never been taught to use their faculties in 
"working out their own salvation," thousands 
who will not exercise themselves religiously, and 
who yet cannot be without the exercises of relig- 
ion, intrust themselves in idle faith to that vener- 
able house of refuge which for centuries has stood 
between God and man. A Church which has 
harbored generations of the elect, whose archives 
enshrine the names of saints, whose foundations 
are consecrated with martj^rs' blood — shall it not 
afford a sure asylum still for any soul which would 
make its peace with God ? So, as the Hermit into 
the molluscan shell, creeps the poor soul within 
the pale of Rome, seeking, like Adam in the gar- 
den, to hide its nakedness from God. 

Why does the true lover of men restrain not 
his lips in warning his fellows against this and all 
other priestly religions ? It is not because he fails 
to see the prodigious energy of the Papal See, or 
to appreciate the many noble types of Christian 
manhood nurtured within its pale. Nor is it be- 
cause its teachers are often corrupt and its system 
of doctrine inadequate as a representation of the 
Truth — charges which have to be made more or 
less against all religions. But it is because it 
ministers falsely to the deepest need of man, re- 
duces the end of religion to selfishness, and offers 
safety without spirituality. That these, theoreti- 



296 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

^ j 

cally, are its pretensions, we do not affirm ; but 
that its practical working is to induce in man, and 
in its worst formo, the parasitic habit, is testified by 
results. No one who lias studied the religion of 
the Continent upon the spot, has failed to be im- 
pressed with the appalling spectacle of tens of 
thousands of unregenerate men sheltering them- 
selves, as they conceive it for Eternity, behind 
the Sacraments of Rome. 

There is no stronger evidence of the inborn par- 
asitic tendency in man in things religious than 
the absolute complacency with which even cul- 
tured men will hand over their eternal interests 
to the care of a Church. We can never dismiss 
from memory the sadness with which we once 
listened to the confession of a certain foreign pro- 
fessor: "I used to be concerned about religion," 
he said in substance, "but religion is a great sub- 
ject. I was very busy ; there was little time to 
settle it for myself. A Protestant, my attention 
was called to the Roman Catholic religion. It 
suited my case. And instead of dabbling in relig- 
ion for myself I put myself in its hands. Once a 
year," he concluded, " I go to mass." These were 
the words of one whose work will live in the his- 
tory of his country, one, too, who knew all about 
parasitism. Yet, though he thought it not, this is 
parasitism in its worst and most degrading form. 
Nor, in spite of its intellectual, not to say moral 
sin, is this an extreme or exceptional case. It is 
a case, which is being duplicated every day in our 
own country, only here the confession is expressed 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 297 

with a candor which is rare in company with ac- 
tions betraying so signally the want of it. 

The form of parasitism exhibited by a certain 
section of the narrower Evangelical school is 
altogether different from that of the Church of 
Kome. The parasite in this case seeks its shelter, 
not in a Church, but in a Doctrine or a Creed. 
Let it be observed again that we are not dealing 
with the Evangelical Religion, but only with one 
of its parasitic forms — a form which will at once 
be recognized by all who know the popular Prot- 
estantism of this country. We confine ourselves 
also at present to that form which finds its en- 
couragement in a single doctrine, that doctrine 
being the Doctrine of the Atonement — let us say, 
rather, a perverted form of this central truth. 

The perverted Doctrine of the Atonement, 
which tends to beget the parasitic habit, may be 
defined in a single sentence — it is very much 
because it can be defined in a single sentence that 
it is a perversion. Let us state it in a concrete 
form. It is put to the individual in the following 
syllogism : " You believe Christ died for sinners ; 
you are a sinner ; therefore Christ died for you ; 
and hence you are saved.''' Now what is this but 
another species of moUuscan shell "^ Could any 
trap for a benighted soul be more ingeniously 
planned ? It is not superstition that is appealed 
to this time ; it is reason. The agitated soul is 
invited to creep into the convolutions of a syllo- 
gism, and entrench itself behind a Doctrine more 
venerable even than the Church. But words are 



298 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

mere chitine. Doctrines may have no more vital 
contact with the soul than priest or sacrament, no 
further influence on life and character than stone 
and lime. And yet the apostles of parasitism pick 
a blackguard from the streets, pass him through 
this plausible formula, and turn him out a convert 
in the space of as many minutes as it takes to 
tell it. 

The zeal of these men, assuredly, is not to be 
questioned : their instincts are right, and their 
work is often not in vain. It is possible, too, up 
to a certain point, to defend this Salvation by Form- 
ula. Are these not the very words of Scrip- 
ture? Did not Christ Himself say, "It is 
finished ? " And is it not written, '' By grace are 
ye saved through faith," " Not of works, lest any 
man should boast," and "He that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life ? " To which, however, 
one might also answer in the words of Scrip- 
ture, " The Devils also believe," and " Except a 
man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God." But without seeming to make text refute 
text, let us ask rather what the supposed convert 
possesses at the end of the process. That Christ 
saves sinners, even blackguards from the streets, 
is a great fact ; and that the simple words of the 
street evangelist do sometimes bring this home to 
man with convincing power is also a fact. But 
in ordinary circumstances, when the inquirer's 
mind is rapidly urged through the various stages 
of the above piece of logic, he is left to face the 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 299 

future and blot out the past with a formula of 
words. 

To be sure these words may already convey a 
germ of truth, they may yet be filled in with a 
wealth of meaning and become a lifelong power. 
But we would state the case against Salvation by 
Formula with ignorant and unwarranted clemency 
did we for a moment convey the idea that this is 
always the actual result. The doctrine plays too 
well into the hands of the parasitic tendency to 
make it possible that in more than a minority of 
cases the result is anything but disastrous. And 
it is disastrous not in that, sooner or later after 
losing half their lives, those who rely on the naked 
syllogism come to see their mistake, but in that 
thousands never come to see it at all. Are there 
not men who can prove to you and to the world, 
by the irresistible logic of texts, that they are 
«aved, whom you know to be not only unworthy 
of the Kingdom of God — which we all are — but 
absolutely incapable of entering it ? The condi- 
tion of membership in the Kingdom of God is well 
known ; who fulfil this condition and who do not, 
is not well known. And yet the moral test, in 
spite of the difficulty of its applications, will 
always, and rightly, be preferred by the world tc 
the theological. Nevertheless, in spite of the 
world's verdict, the parasite is content. He is 
"safe." Years ago his mind worked through a 
certain chain of phrases in which the words 
" believe " and " saved " were the conspicuous 
terms. And from that moment, by all Scriptures, 
L 



300 SEMI-PARASITISM, 

by all logic, and by all theology, his future was 
guaranteed. He took out, in short, an insurance 
policy, by which he was infallibly secured eternal 
life at death. This is not a matter to make light of. 
We wish we were caricaturing instead of repre- 
senting things as they are. But we carry with us 
all who intimately know the spiritual condition 
of the Narrow Church in asserting that in some 
cases at least its members have nothing more to^ 
show for their religion than a formula, a syllo- 
gism, a cant phrase or an experience of some 
kind which happened long ago, and which men 
told them at the time was called Salvation. Need 
we proceed to formulate objections to the parasit- 
ism of Evangelicism ? Between it and the 
Religion of the Church of Rome there is an affin- 
ity as real as it is unsuspected. For one thing 
these religions are spiritually disastrous as well as 
theologically erroneous in propagating a false con- 
ception of Christianity. The fundamental idea 
alike of the extreme Roman C atholic and extreme 
Evangelical Religions is Escape. Man's chief end 
is to " get oflP." And all factors in religion, the 
highest and most sacred, are degraded to this 
level. God, for example, is a Great Lawyer. Or 
He is the Almighty Enemy ; it is from Him we 
have to " get off." Jesus Christ is the One who, 
gets us off — a theological figure who contrives so 
to adjust matters federally that the way is clear.. 
The Church in the one instance is a kind of con» 
veyancing office where the transaction is duly con- 
cluded, each party accepting the other's terms ; in 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 3OI 

the other case a species of sheep-pen where the 
flock awaits impatiently and indolently the final 
consummation. Generally, the means are mistaken 
for the end, and the opening-up of the possibility 
of spiritual growth becomes the signal to stop 
growing. 

Second, these being cheap religions, are inevi- 
tably accompanied by a cheap life. Safety being 
guaranteed from the first, there remains nothing 
else to be done. The mechanical way in which 
the transaction is effected, leaves the soul without 
stimulus, and the character remains untouched by 
the moral aspects of the sacrifice of Christ. He who 
is unjust is unjust still ; he who is unholy is unholy 
still. Thus the whole scheme ministers to the 
Degeneration of Organs. For here, again, by 
just as much as the organism borrows mechani- 
cally from an external source, by so much exactly 
does it lose in its own organization. Whatever 
rest is provided by Christianity for the children 
of God, it is certainly never contemplated that it 
should supersede personal effort. And any rest 
which ministers to indifference is immoral and un- 
real — it makes parasites and not men. Just 
because God worketh in him, as the evidence and 
triumph of it, the true child of God works out 
bis own salvation — works it out having really re- 
ceived it— not as a light thing, a superfluous 
labor, but with fear and trembling as a reasonable 
;-ind indispensable service. 

If it be asked, then, shall the parasite be saved 
or shall he not, the answer is that the idea of sal- 



302 SEMI-PARASITISM. 

vation conveyed by the question makes a reply 
all but hopeless. But if by salvation is meant a 
trusting in Christ in order to likeness to Christ, in 
order to that holiness without which no man shall 
see the Lord, the reply is that the parasite's hope 
is absolutely vain. So far from ministering to 
growth, parasitism ministers to decay. So far 
from ministering to holiness, that is to wholeness^ 
parasitism ministers to exactly the opposite. 
One by one the spiritual faculties droop and die, 
one by one from lack of exercise the muscles of 
the soul grow weak and flaccid, one by one the 
moral activities cease. So from him that hath 
not, is taken away that which he hath, and after 
a few years of parasitism there is nothing left to 
save. 

If our meaning up to this point has been suffi- 
ciently obscure to make the objection now possible 
that this protest against Parasitism is opposed to 
the doctrines of Free Grace, we cannot hope in 
a closing sentence to free the argument from sus- 
picion so ill-judged. The adjustment between 
Faith and Works does not fall within our province 
now. Salvation truly is the free gift of God, but 
he who really knows how much this means knows 
—and just because it means so much — how much 
of consequent action it involves. With the cen- 
tral doctrines of grace the whole scientific argu- 
ment is in too wonderful harmon}'- to be found 
wanting here. The natural life, not less than the 
eternal, is the gift of God. But life in either 
case is the beginning of growth, and not the end 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 303 

of grace. To pause where we should begin, to 
retrograde where we should advance, to seek a 
mechanical security that we may cover inertia 
and find a wholesale salvation in which there is 
no personal sanctification — this is Parasitism. 



PARASITISM. 



" And so I live, you see, 
Go through the world, try, prove, reject^ 
Prefer^ still struggling to effect 
My warfare ; happy that I can 
Be crossed and thwarted as a man^ 
Not left in Ood 's contempt apart, 
With ghastly smooth life, dead at hearty 
Tame in earth^s paddcc",'. ^-s "her prize, 

* '- . 41 • * 

Thanh Ood, no paradise sta'.ids barred 
To entry, and I find it hard 
To he a Christian, as I said.^* 



Beowniko. 



PARASI'flSM. 

"Work out your own salvation."— PawZ. 

"Be no longer a chaos, but a World, or even World- 
kin. Produce ! Produce ! Were it but the pitifullest 
infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it, in God's 
name! ^^—Carlijle. 

Feom a study of the habits and organization of 
the family of Hermit-crabs we have already 
gained some insight into the nature and effects of 
parasitism. But the Hermit-crab, be it remem- 
bered, is in no real sense a parasite. And before 
we can apply the general principle further we 
must address ourselves briefly to the examination 
of a true case of parasitism. 

We have not far to seek. Within the body of 
the Hermit-crab a minute organism may frequently 
be discovered resembling, when magnified, a 
miniature kidney-bean. A bunch of root-like 
processes hangs from one side, and the extremities 
of these are seen to ramify in delicate films 
through the living tissues of the crab. This 
simple organism is known to the naturalist as a 
Sacculina; and though a full-grown animal, it 
consists of no more parts than those just named. 
Not a trace of structure is to be detected within 
this rude and all but inanimate frame ; it possesses 

(307) 



308 PARASITISM. 



neither legs, nor eyes, nor mouth, nor throat, nor 
stomach, nor any other organs, external or inter- 
nal. This Sacculina is a typical parasite. By 
means of its twining and theftuous roots it im- 
bibes automatically its nourishment ready pre- 
pared from the body of the crab. It boards in- 
deed entirely at the expense of its host, who 
supplies it liberally with food and shelter and 
everything else it wants. So far as the result to 
itself is concerned this arrangement may seem at 
first sight satisfactory enough ; but when we in- 
quire into the life history of this small creature 
we unearth a career of degeneracy all but unpar- 
alleled in nature. 

The most certain clue to what nature meant 
any animal to become is to be learned from its 
embryology. Let us, therefore, examine for a 
moment the earliest positive stage in the develop- 
ment of the Sacculina. When the embryo first 
makes its appearance it bears not the remotest 
resemblance to the adult animal. A different 
name even is given to it by the biologist, who 
knows it at this period as a Nauplius. This mi- 
nute organism has an oval body, supplied with six. 
well-jointed feet by means of which it paddles 
briskly through the water. For a time it leads 
an active and independent life, industriously se- 
curing its own food and escaping enemies by its 
own gallantry. But soon a change takes place. 
The hereditary taint of parasitism is in its blood, 
and it proceeds to adapt itself to the pauper 
habits of its race. The tiny body first doubles in 



PARASITISM, 309 



apon itself, and from the two front limbs elon- 
gated filaments protrude. Its four hind limbs 
entirely disappear, and twelve short-forked swim- 
ming organs temporarily take their place. Thus 
strangely metamorphosed the Sacculina sets out 
in search of a suitable host, and in an evil hour, 
by that fate which is always ready to accommo- 
date the transgressor, is thrown into the company 
of the Hermit-crab. With its two filamentary 
processes — which afterward develop into the root- 
like organs — it penetrates the body; the sac-like 
form is gradually assumed ; the whole of the 
swimming feet drop off, — they will never be 
needed again, — and the animal settles down for 
the rest of its life as a parasite. 

One reason which makes a zoologist certain that 
the Sacculina is a degenerate type is, that in 
almost all other instances of animals which begin 
life in the Nauplius-form — and there are several — • 
the Nauplius develops through higher and higher 
stages, and arrives finally at the high perfection 
displayed by the slirimp, lobster, crab, and other 
crustaceans. But instead of rising to its oppor- 
tunities, the sacculine Nauplius having reached a 
certain point turned back. It shrunk from the 
struggle for life, and beginning probably by seek= 
ing shelter from its host went on to demand its 
food ; and so falling from bad to worse, became in 
time an entire dependant. 

In the eyes of Nature this was a twofold crime. 
It was first a disregard of evolution, and second, 
'which is practically the same thing, an evasion of 



3IO PARASITISM. 

the great law of work. And the revenge of Na- 
ture was therefore necessary. It could not help 
punishing the Sacculina for violated law, and the 
punishment, according to the strange and note- 
worthy way in which Nature usually punishes, 
was meted out by natural processes, carried on 
within its own organization. Its punishment was 
simply that it was a Sacculina — that it was a Sac- 
culina wlien it might have been a Crustacean. 
Instead of being a free and independent organism 
high in structure, original in action, vital with 
energy, it deteriorated into a torpid and all but 
amorphous sac confined to perpetual imprison- 
ment and doomed to a living death. " Any new 
set of conditions," says Ray Lankester, "occur- 
ring to an animal which render its food and safety 
very easily attained, seem to lead as a rule to de- 
generation ; just as an active healthy man some- 
times degenerates when he becomes suddenly pos- 
sessed of a fortune ; or as Rome degenerated 
when possessed of the riches of the ancient world. 
The habit of parasitism clearly acts upon animal 
organization in this way. Let the parasitic life 
once be secured, and away go legs, jaws, eyes, and 
ears ; the active, highly-gifted crab, insect, or an- 
nelid may become a mere sac, absorbing nourish- 
ment and laying eggs." ^ 

There could be no more impressive illustration 

than this of what with entire appropriateness one 

might call *' the physiology of backsliding." We 

fail to appreciate the meaning of spiritual degen- . 

' " Degeneration," by E. Ray Lankestei. ^3. 33. 



PARASITISM. 311 



eration or detect the terrible nature of the conse* 
quences only because they evade the eye of sense. 
But could we investigate the spirit as a living or- 
ganism, or study the soul of the backslider on 
principles of comparative anatomy, we should 
have a revelation of the organic effects of sin, 
even of the mere sin of carelessness as to growth 
and work, which must revolutionize our ideas of 
practical religion. There is no room for the doubt 
even that what goes on in the body does not with 
equal certainty take place in the spirit under the 
corresponding conditions. 

The penalty of backsliding is not something 
unreal and vague, some unknown quantity which 
may be measured out to us disproportionately, or 
which perchance, since God is good, we may alto- 
gether evade. The consequences are already 
marked within the structure of the soul. So to 
speak, they are physiological. The thing affected 
by our indifference or by our indulgence is not the 
book of final judgment but the present fabric of 
the soul. The punishment of degeneration is 
-simply degeneration — the loss of functions, the 
decay of organs, the atrophy of the spiritual na- 
ture. It is well known that the recovery of the 
backslider is one of the hardest problems in spir- 
itual work. To reinvigorate an old organ seems 
more difficult and hopeless than to develop a new 
one ; and the backslider's terrible lot is to have to 
retrace with enfeebled feet each step of the way 
along which he strayed ; to make up inch by inch 
the lee-wav he has lost, carrA^ing with him a dead- 



312 PARASITISM. 



weight of acquired reluctance, and scarce know-^ 
ing whether to be stimulated or discouraged by 
the oppressive memory of the previous fall. 

We ar3 not, however, to discuss at present the 
physiology of backsliding. Nor need we point, 
out at greater length that parasitism is alwaj^s and 
indissolubly accompanied b}^ degeneration. We 
wish rather to examine one or two leading tend-, 
encies of the modern religious life which directly 
or indirectly induce the parasitic habit and bring 
upon thousands of unsuspecting victims such 
secret and appalling penalties as have been named. 

Two main causes are known to the biologist as 
tending to induce the parasitic habit. These are, 
first, the temptation to secure safety without the 
vital exercises of faculties, and, second, the dispo- 
sition to find food without earning it. The first, 
w^hich we have formally considered, is probably 
the preliminary stage in most cases. The animal, 
seeking shelter, finds unexpectedly that it can also 
thereby gain a certain measure of food. Compelled 
in the first instance, perhaps by stress of circum- 
stances, to rob its host of a meal or perish, it 
gradually acquires the habit of drawing all its 
supplies from the same source, and thus becomes 
in time a confirmed parasite. Whatever be its 
origin, however, it is certain that the main evil of 
parasitism is connected with the further question 
of food. Mere safety with Nature is a secondary, 
though by no means an insignificant, consideration. 
And while the organism forfeits a part of its or- 
ganization by any method of evading enemies 



PARASITISM. 313 



which demands no personal effort, the most entire 
degeneration of the whole system follows the 
neglect or abuse of the functions of nutrition. 

The direction in which we have to seek the 
wider application of the subject will now appear. 
We have to look into those cases in the moral and 
spiritual sphere in which the functions of nutrition 
are either neglected or abused. To sustain life, 
physical, mental, moral, or spiritual, some sort of 
food is essential. To secure an adequate supply 
each organism also is provided with special and 
appropriate faculties. But the final gain to the 
organism does not depend so much on the actual 
amount of food procured as on the exercise re- 
quired to obtain it. In one sense the exercise is 
only a means to an end, namely, the finding food; 
but in another and equally real sense, the exercise 
is the end, the food the means to attain that. 
Neither is of permanent use without the other, 
but the correlation between them is so intimate 
that it were idle to say that one is more necessary 
than the other. Without food exercise is impos- 
sible, but without exercise food is useless. 

Thus exercise is in order to food, and food is in 
order to exercise — in order especially to that 
further progress and maturity which only cease- 
less activity can promote. Now food too easily 
acquired means food without that accompaniment 
nf discipline which is infinitely more valuable than 
lie food itself. It means the possibility of a life 
tvhich is a mere existence. It leaves the organism 
in statu quo, undeveloped, immature, low in the 



314 PARASITISM. 



scale of organization and with a growing tendency 
to pass from the state of equilibrium to that of 
increasing degeneration. What an organism is 
depends upon what it does ; its activities make it. 
And if the stimulus to the exercise of all the in- 
numerable faculties concerned in nutrition be 
withdrawn by the conditions and circumstances 
of life, becoming, or being made to become, toe 
easy, there is first an arrest of development, and 
finally a loss of the parts themselves. If, in short, 
an organism does nothing, in that relation it is 
nothing. 

We may, therefore, formulate the general 
principle thus : Any pi^incijole ivhicli secures food 
to the individual without the expenditure of work is 
injurious, and accompanied hy the degeneratio7i and 
loss of parts. 

The social and political analogies of this law, 
which have been casually referred to already, are 
sufficiently familiar to render any further develop- 
ment in these directions superfluous. After the 
eloquent preaching of the Gospel of Work by 
Thomas Carlyle, this century at least can never 
plead that one of the most important moral bear- 
ings of the subject has not been duly impressed 
upon it. All that can be said of idleness gener- 
ally might be fitly urged in support of this great 
practical truth. All nations which have prema- 
turely passed away, buried in graves dug by their 
own effeminacy ; all those individuals who have 
secured a hasty wealth by the chances of specula- 
tion ; all children of fortune ; all victims of in- 



PARASITISM. 315 



LeritaDce ; all social sponges ; all satellites of the 
court; all beggars of the market-place — all these 
are living and unlying witnesses to the unalter- 
able retributions of the law of parasitism. But itj 
is when we come to study the working of the princi- 
pie in the religious sphere that we discover the full 
extent of the ravages which the parasitic habit can 
make on the souls of men. We can only hope to 
indicate here one or two of the things in modern 
Christianity which minister most subtly and widely 
to this as yet all but unnamed sin. 

We begin in what may seem a somewhat un- 
looked-for quarter. One of the things in the 
religious world which tends most strongly to in- 
duce the parasitic habit is Going to Cliurch. 
Church-going itself every Christian will rightly 
consider an invaluable aid to the ripe develop- 
ment of the spiritual life. Public worship has a 
place in the national religious life so firmly estab- 
lished that nothing is ever likely to shake its 
influence. So supreme indeed, is the ecclesias- 
tical system in all Christian countries that with 
thousands the religion of the Church and the 
religion of the individual are one. But just be- 
cause of its high and unique place in religious re- 
gard, does it become men from time to time to in- 
quire how far the Church is really ministering to 
the spiritual health of the immense religious com- 
munity which looks to it as its foster-mother. And 
It it falls to us here reluctantly to expose some 
secret abuses of this venerable system, let it be 
well understood that these are abuses, and nut 



3l6 PARASITISM, 



that the sacred institution itself is being violated^ 
by the attack of an impious hand. 

The danger of church-going largely depends on 
the form of worship, but it may be affirmed that 
even the most perfect Church affords to all wor= 
shippers a greater or less temptation to parasitism. 
It consists essentially in the deputy-work or 
deputy- worship inseparable from church or 
chapel ministrations. One man is set apart to 
prepare a certain amount of spiritual truth for 
the rest. He, if he is a true man, gets all the 
benefits of original work. He finds the truth, 
digests it, is nourished and enriched by it before 
he offers it to his flock. To a large extent it will 
nourish and enrich in turn a number of his 
hearers. But ^till they will lack something. The 
faculty of selecting truth at first hand and appro- 
priating it for one's self is a lawful possession to 
every Christian. Rightly exercised it conveys to 
him truth in its freshest form ; it offers him the 
opportunity of verifying doctrines for himself; 
it makes religion personal ; it deepens and inten- 
sifies the onl}^ convictions that are worth deepen- 
ing, those, namely, which are honest ; and it sup- 
plies the mind with a basis of certain t}^ in religion. 
But if all one's truth is derived by imbibition 
from the Church, the faculties for receiving truth 
are not only undeveloped but one's whole view of 
truth becomes distorted. He who abandons the 
personal search for truth, under whatever pretext, 
abandons truth. The very word truth, by becom- 
ing the limited possession of a guild, ceases to 



PARASITISM. 317 



have any meaning ; and faith, which can only be 
founded on truth, gives way to credulity, resting 
on mere opinion. 

In those churches especially where all parts 
of the worship are subordinated to the ser- 
mon, this species of parasitism is peculiarly en- 
couraged. What is meant to be a stimulus to 
thought becomes the substitute for it.* The hearer 
never really learns, he only listens. And while 
truth and knowledge seem to increase, life and 
character are left in arrear. Such truth, of 
course, and such knowledge, are a mere seeming. 
Having cost nothing, they come to nothing The 
organism acquires a growing immobility, and 
finally exists in a state of entire intellectual help- 
lessness and inertia. So the parasitic Church- 
member, the literal " adherent," comes not merely 
to live only within the circle of ideas of his min- 
ister, but to be content that his minister has these 
ideas — like the literary parasite who fancies he 
knows everything because he has a good library. 

Where the Avorship, again, is largely liturgical 
the danger assumes an even more serious form, 
and it acts in some such way as this. Every sin- 
cere man who sets out in the Christian race begins 
hy attempting to exercise the spiritual facul- 
ties for himself. The young life throbs in his 
veins, and he sets himself to the further progress 
with earnest purpose and resolute will. For a 
time he bids fair to attain a high and original de- 
velopment. But the temptation to relax the al- 
ways diflScult effort at spirituality is greater than 



3l8 PARASITISM. 



he knows. The " carnal mind " itself is " enmity 
against God," and the antipathy, or the deadlier 
apathy within, is unexpectedly encouraged from 
that very outside source from which he anticipates 
the greatest help. Connecting himself with a 
► Church he is no less interested than surprised to 
find how rich is the provision there for every part 
of his S2:)iritual nature. Each service satisfies or 
surfeits. Twice, or even three times a week, this 
feast is spread for him. The thoughts are deeper 
than his own, the faith keener, the worship loftier, 
the whole ritual more reverent and splendid. 
"What more natural than that Le should gradually 
exchange his personal religion for that of the 
congregation? What more likely than that a 
public religion should by insensible stages sup- 
plant his individual faith ? What more simple 
than to content himself with the warmth of an- 
other's soul ? What more tempting than to give 
up private prayer for the easier worship of the 
liturgy or of the church? What, in short, more 
natural than for the independent, free-moving, 
growing Sacculina to degenerate into the listless, 
useless, pampered parasite of the pew? The very 
means he takes to nurse his personal religion often 
come in time to wean him from it. Hanging ad- 
miringly, or even enthusiastically, on the lips of 
eloquence, his senses now stirred by ceremony, 
now soothed by music, the parasite of the pew 
enjoys his weekly worship — his character un- 
touched, his will unbraced, his crude soul un- 
quickened and unimproved. Thus, instead of 



PARASITISM. 319 



ministering to the growth of individual members, 
and very often just in proportion to the superior 
excellence of the provision made for them by an- 
other, does this gigantic system of depaty-nutri- 
tion tend to destroy development and arrest the 
genuine culture of the soul. Our churches over- 
Sow with members who are mere consumers. 
Their interest in religion is purely parasitic. 
Their only spiritual exercise is the automatic one 
of imbibition, the clergyman being the faithful 
Hermit-crab who is to be depended on every Sun- 
day for at least a week's supply. 

A physiologist would describe the organism re- 
sulting from such a process as a case of " arrested 
development." Instead of having learned to pray, 
the ecclesiastical parasite becomes satisfied with 
being prayed for. His transactions with the 
Eternal are effected by commission. His work 
for Christ is done by a paid deputy. His whole 
life is a prolonged indulgence in the bounties of 
the Church ; and surely — in some cases at least 
the crowning irony— he sends for the minister 
when he lies down to die. 

Other signs and consequences of this species of 
parasitism soon become very apparent. The first 
symptom is idleness. When a Church is off its 
true diet it is off its true work. Hence one ex- 
planation of the hundreds of large and influential 
congregations ministered to from week to Aveek 
by men of eminent learning and earnestness, 
which yet do little or nothing in the line of these 
special activities for which all churches exist. An 



320 PARASITISM. 



outstanding man at the head of a huge, useless 
and torpid congregation is always a puzzle. But 
is the reason not this, that the congregation gets 
too good food too cheap? Providence has merci- 
fully delivered the Church from too many great 
men in her pulpits, but there are enough in every 
country-side to play the host disastrously to a 
large circle of otherwise able-bodied Christian 
people, who, thrown on their own resources, might 
fatten themselves and help others. There are 
compensations to a flock for a poor minister after 
all. Where the fare is indifferent those who are 
really hungry will exert themselves to procure 
their own supply. 

That the Church has indispensable functions to 
discharge to the individual is not denied ; but 
taking into consideration- the universal tendency 
to parasitism in the human soul it is a grave ques- 
tion whether in some cases it does not really 
effect more harm than good. A dead church 
certainly, a church having no reaction on the 
community, a church without propagative power 
in the world, cannot be other than a calamity to 
all within its borders. Such a church is an in- 
stitution, first for making, then for screening pr.ra- 
sites ; and instead of representing to the world 
the Kingdom of God on earth, it is despised alike 
by godly and by godless men as the refuge for 
fear and formalism and the nursery of supersti- 
tion. 

And this suggests a second and not less prac- 
tical evil of a parasitic piety — that it prepents to 



PARASITISM. 321 



the world a false conception of the religion of 
Christ. One notices with a frequency which may 
well excite alarm that the children of church- 
going parents often break away as they grow in 
intelligence, not only from church-connection but 
from the whole system of family religion. In 
some cases this is doubtless due to natural perver 
sity, but in others it certainly arises from the hol- 
lowness of the outward forms which pass current 
in society and at home for vital Christianity. 
These spurious forms, fortunately or unfortu- 
nately, soon betray themselves. How little there 
is in them becomes gradually apparent. And 
rather than indulge in a sham the budding sceptic, 
as the first step, parts with the form and in nine 
cases out of ten concerns himself no further to 
find a substitute. Quite deliberately, quite 
honestly, sometimes with real regret and even at 
personal sacrifice he takes up his position, and to 
his parent's sorrow and his church's dishonor for- 
sakes forever the faith and religion of his fathers. 
Who will deny that this is a true account of the 
natural history of much modern scepticism ? A 
formal religion can never hold its own in the 
nineteenth century. It is better that it should 
not. We must either be real or cease to be. We 
must either give up our Parasitism or our sons. 

Any one who will take the trouble to investi- 
gate a number of cases where whole families of 
outwardly godly parents have gone astray, will 
probably find that the household religion had 
either some palpable defect, 'or belonged essen- 
21 



322 PARASITISM: 



tially to the parasitic order. The popular belief 
that the sons of clergyman turn out worse than 
those of the laity is, of course, without founda- 
tion ; but it may also probably be verified that in 
the instances where clergymen's sons notoriously 
discredit their father's ministry, that ministry in 
a majority of cases, will be found to be profes- 
sional and theological rather than human and 
spiritual. Sequences in the moral and spiritual 
world follow more closely than we 3^et discern the 
great law of Heredity. The Parasite begets the 
Parasite— only in the second generation the off- 
spring are sometimes sufficiently wise to make the 
discovery, and honest enough to proclaim it. 

We now pass on to the consideration of another 
form of Parasitism which, though closely related 
to that just discussed, is of sufficient importance 
to justify a separate reference. Appealing to a 
somewhat smaller circle, but affecting it not less 
disastrously, is the Parasitism induced by certain 
abuses of Systems of Theology. 

In its own place, of course. Theology is no more 
to be dispensed with than the Church. In every 
perfect religious system three great departments 
must always be represented — criticism, dogma- 
tism, and evangelism. Without the first there is 
no guarantee of truth, without the second no de- 
fence of truth, and without the third no propaga- 
tion of truth. But when these departments be- 
come mixed up, when their separate functions are 
forgotten, when one is made to do duty for an- 
other, or where either is developed by the church 



PARASITISM, 323 



or the individual at the expense of the rest, the 
result is fatal. The particular abuse, however, of 
which we have now to speak, concerns the tend- 
ency in orthodox communities, first to exalt ortho- 
doxy above all other elements in religion, and 
secondly to make the possession of sound beliefs 
equivalent to the possession of truth. 

Doctrinal preaching, fortunately, as a constant 
practice is less in vogue than in a former age, but 
there are still large numbers whose only contact 
with religion is through theological forms. The 
method is supported by a plausible defence. 
■ What is doctrine but a compressed form of truth, 
systematized by able and pious men, and sanc- 
tioned by the imprimatur of the Church? If the 
greatest minds of the Church's past, having ex- 
ercised themselves profoundly upon the problems 
of religion, formulated as with one voice a system 
of doctrine, why should the humble inquirer not 
gratefully accept it? Why go over the ground 
again ? Why with his dim light should he betake 
himself afresh to Bible study and with so great a 
body of divinity already compiled, presume him- 
self to be still a seeker after truth ? Does not 
Theology give him Bible truth in reliable, con- 
venient, and moreover, in logical propositions? 
There it lies extended to the last detail in the 
tomes of the Fathers, or abridged in a hundred 
modern compendia, ready-made to his hand, all 
cut and dry, guaranteed sound and wholesome, 
why not use it ? 

Just because it is all cut and drv. Just be- 



324 PARASITISM, 



cause it is ready-made. Just because it lies there 
in reliable, convenient and logical propositions. 
The moment you appropriate truth in such a shape 
you appropriate a form. You cannot cut and dry 
truth. You cannot accept truth ready-made with- 
out it ceasing to nourish the soul as truth. You 
cannot live on theological forms without becom- 
ing a Parasite and ceasing to be a man. 

There is no worse enemy to a living Church 
than a propositional theolog}^, with the latter con- 
trolling the former by traditional authority. For 
one does not then receive the truth for himself, he 
accepts it bodily. He begins the Christian life set 
up by his Church with a stock-in-trade which has 
cost him nothing, and which, though it may serve 
him all his life, is just exactly worth as much as 
his belief in his Church. This possession of 
truth, moreover, thus lightly won, is given to him 
as infallible. It is a system. There is nothing to 
add to it. At his peril let him question or take 
from it. To start a convert in life with such a 
principle is unspeakably degrading. All through 
life instead of working towards truth he must work 
from it. An infallible standard is a temptation to 
a mechanical faith. Infallibility always paralj'ses. 
It gives rest; but it is the rest of stagnation. 
Men perform one great act of faith at the begin- 
ning of their life, then have done with it forever. 
All moral, intellectual and spiritual effort is over ; 
and a cheap theology ends in a cheap life. 

The same thing that makes men take refuge in 
the Church of Rome makes them take refuge in a 



PARASITISM. 325 



set of dogmas. Infallibility meets the deepest de- 
sire of man, \i\^'z meets it in the most fatal form, 
Men deal with the hunger after truth in two ways. 
First by Unbelief — which crushes it by blind 
force ; or, secondly, by resorting to some external 
source credited with Infallibility — which lulls it to 
sleep by blind faith. The effect of a doctrinal 
theology is the effect of Infallibility. And the 
wholesale belief in such a system, however accur- 
ate it maybe — grant even that it were infallible — 
is not Faith though it always gets that name. It 
is mere Credulity. It is a complacent and idle 
rest upon authority, not a hard-earned, self-ob- 
tained, personal possession. The moral responsi- 
bility here, besides, is reduced to nothing. Those 
who framed the Thirty-nine Articles or the West- 
minster Confession are responsible. And any- 
thing which destroys responsibility, or transfers it, 
cannot be other than injurious in its moral tend- 
ency and useless in itself. 

It may be objected, perhaps, that this statement 
of the paralysis, spiritual and mental, induced by 
Infallibility applies also to the Bible. The answer 
is that though the Bible is infallible, the Infalli- 
bility is not in such a form as to become a tempta- 
tion. There is the widest possible difference be- 
tween the form of truth in the Bible and the form 
in theology. 

In theology truth is proposition al — tied up in 
neat parcels, systematized, and arranged in logical 
order. The Trinity is an intricate doctrinal prob- 
lem. The Supreme Being is discussed in terms 



326 PARASITISM. 



of philosophy. The Atonement is a formula 
which is to be demonstrated like a proposition in 
Euclid. And Justification is to be worked out as 
a question of jurisprudence. There is no neces- 
sary connection between these doctrines and the 
life of him who holds them. They make him or- 
thodox, not necessarily righteous. They satisfy 
the intellect but need not touch the heart. It 
does not, in short, take a religious man to be a 
theologian. It simply takes a man with fair rea- 
soning powers. This man happens to apply these 
powers to theological subjects — but in no other 
sense than he might apply them to astronomy or 
physics. But truth in the Bible is a fountain. It 
is a diffused nutriment, so diffused that no one 
can put himself off with the form. It is reached 
not by thinking, but by doing. It is seen, dis- 
cerned, not demonstrated. It cannot be bolted 
whole, but must be slowly absorbed into the sys- 
tem. Its vagueness to the mere intellect, its re- 
fusal to be packed into portable phrases, its satis- 
fying unsatisfyingness, its vast atmosphere, its 
finding of us, its mystical hold of us, these are 
the tokens of its infinity. 

Nature never provides for man's wants in any 
direction, bodily, mental, or spiritual, in such a 
form as that he can simply accept her gifts auto- 
matically. She puts all the mechanical powers at 
his disposal — but he must make his lever. She 
gives him corn, iDut he must grind it. She elabo- 
rates coal, but he must dig for it. Corn is per- 
fect, all the products of Nature are perfect, but he 



PARASITISM. 327 



lias everything to do to them before he can use 
them. So with truth ; it is perfect, infallible. 
But he cannot use it as it stands. He must work, 
think, separate, dissolve, absorb, digest ; and most 
of these he must do for himself and within him- 
self. . If it be replied that this is exactly what 
theology does, we answer it is exactly what it 
does not. It simply does what the greengrocer 
does when he arranges his apples and plums in 
his shop window. He may tell me a magnum 
bonum from a Victoria, or a Baldwin from a New- 
town Pippin. But he does not help me to eat it. 
His information is useful, and for scientific horti- 
culture essential. Should a sceptical pomologist 
deny that there was such a thing as a Baldwin, or 
mistake it for a Newtown Pippin, we should be 
glad to refer to him ; but if we were hungry, and 
an orchard were handy, we should not trouble 
him. Truth in the Bible is an orchard rather 
than a museum. Dogmatism will be very valu- 
able to us when scientific necessity makes us go 
to the museum. Criticism wdll be very useful in 
seeing that only fruit-bearers grow in the orchard. 
But truth in the doctrinal form is not natural, 
proper, assimilable food for the soul of man. 

Is this a plea then for doubt ? Yes, for that 
philosophic doubt which is the evidence of a fac- 
ulty doing its own work. It is more necessary 
for us to be active than to be orthodox. To be 
orthodox is what we wish to be, but we can only 
truly reach it by being honest, by being original, 
by seeing with our own eyes, by believing with 



328 PARASITISM. 



our own heart. ^' An idle life," says Goethe, " is 
death' anticipated." Better far be burned at the 
stake of Public Opinion than die the living death 
of Parasitism. Better an aberrant theology than 
it suppressed organization. Better a little faith 
dearly won, better launched alone on the infinite 
bewilderment of Truth, than perish on the splen- 
did plenty of the richest creeds. Such Doubt is 
no self-willed presumption. Nor, truly exercised, 
will it prove itseli", as much doubt does, the syno- 
nym for sorrow. It aims at a life-long learning, 
prepared for any sacrifice of will yet for none of 
independence ; at that high progressive education 
which yields rest in work and work in rest, and 
the development of immortal faculties in both ; at 
that deeper faith which believes in the vastness 
and variety of the revelations of God, and their 
accessibility to all obedient hearts. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



•* / judge of the order of the world, although I know not lit 
end, because to judge of this order I only need mutually to com' 
pare the parts, to study their functions, their relations, and to 
remark their concert. I know not why the universe exists, but 
I do not desist frotn seeing how it is modified ; I do not cease to 
see the intimate- agreement by which the beings that compose it 
render a mutual help. I am like a man who should see for the 
first time an open watch, who should not cea^e to admire the 
xoorkmanship of %t, although he knows not the use of the 
machine, and had never seen dials. I do not know, he would 
say, what all this is for, but I see that each piece is made for the 
others; I admire the worker in the detail of his work, and I am 
very sure that all these wheelworks only go thus in concert for a 
common end which I cannot perceive*^^ 

Rousseau. 



I 



CI.ASSIFICATION. ' 

** That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit."— C/trisi. 

*'In early attempts to arrange organic beings in 
some systematic manner, we see at first a guidance by 
conspicuous and simple characters, and a tendency to- 
wards arrangement in linear order. In successively 
later attempts, we see more regard paid to combina- 
tions of character which are essential but often incon- 
spicuous ; and a gradual abandonment of a linear ar- 
rangement.— iJer6(?/'i Spencer. 

On one of the shelves in a certain museum lie 
two small boxes filled with earth. A low mount- 
ain in Arran has furnished the first ; the contents 
of the second came from the Island of Barbadoes. 
When examined with a pocket lens, the Arran 
earth is found to be full of small objects, clear as 
crystal, fashioned by some mysterious geometry 
into forms of exquisite symmetry. The substance 
is silica, a natural glass ; and the prevailing shape 
is a six-sided prism capped at either end by little 
pyramids modelled with consummate grace. 

When the second specimen is examined, the 
revelation is, if possible, more surprising. Here, 
also, is a vast assemblage of small glassy or per- 
cellanous objects built up into curious forms. 
The material, chemically, remains the same, but 
the angles of pyramid and prism have given place 
M ' (331) 



332 CLASS I PICA TION. 

to curved lines, so that the contour is entirely dif- 
ferent. The appearance is that of a vast collec- 
tion of microscopic urns, goblets, and vases, each 
richly ornamented with small sculptured discs or 
perforations which are disposed over the pure 
white surface in regular belts and rows. Each 
•tiny urn is chiselled into the most faultless pro- 
portion, and the whole presents a vision of magic 
beauty. 

Judged by the standard of their loveliness there 
is little to choose between these two sets of ob- 
jects. Yet there is one cardinal difference be- 
tween them. They belong to different worlds. 
The last belong to the living world, the former to 
the dead. The first are crystals, the last are 
shells. 

No power on earth can make these little urns 
of the Polycystiiice except Life. We can melt 
them down in the laboratory, but no ingenuity of 
chemistry can reproduce their sculptured forms. 
We are sure that Life has formed tliem, however, 
for tiny creatures allied to those which made the 
Barbadoes' earth are living still, fashioning their 
fairy palaces of flint in the same mysterious way^ 
On the other hand, chemistry has no difficulty in 
making these crystals. We can melt down this 
Arran earth and reproduce the pyramids and 
prisms in endless numbers. Nay, if we do melt it 
down, we cannot help reproducing the pyramid 
and the prism. There is a six-sidedness, as it 
were, in the very nature of this substance which 
will infallibly manifest itself if the crystallizing 



CLA SSIFICA TION. 333 

substance only be allowed fair play. This six- 
sided tendency is its Law of Crystallization — a 
law of its nature which it cannot resist. But in 
the crystal there is nothing at all corresponding 
to Life. There is simply an inherent force w^iich 
can be called into action at any moment, and' 
which cannot be separated from the particles in 
which it resides. The crystal may be ground to 
pieces, but this force remains intact. And even 
after being reduced to powder, and running the 
gauntlet of every process in the chemical labora- 
tory, the moment the substance is left to itself 
under possible conditions it will proceed to recrys- 
tallize anew. But if the Poly cystine urn be 
broken, no inorganic agency can build it up again. 
So far as any inherent urn-building power, anal- 
ogous to the crystalline force, is concerned, it 
might lie there in a shapeless mass forever. That 
which modelled it at first is gone from it. It was 
Vital ; while the force which built the crystal was 
only Molecular. 

From an artistic point of view this distinction 
is of small importance, ^sthetically, the Law of 
Crystallization is probably as useful in ministering 
to natural beauty as Vitality. What are more 
beautiful than the crystals of a snowflake ? Or 
what frond of fern or feather of bird can vie with 
the tracery of the frost upon a window-pane ? 
Can it be said that the lichen is more lovely tlian 
the striated crystals of the granite on which it 
grows, or the moss on the mountain side more 
satisfying than the hidden amethyst and cairngorm 



334 CLASSIFICATION. 

in the rock beneath ? Or is the botanist more as* 
tonished when his microscope reveals the archi- 
tecture of spiral tissue in the stem of a plant, or 
the mineralogist who beholds for the first time the 
chaos of beauty in the sliced specimen of some 
common stone ? So far as beauty goes the organic 
world and the inorganic are one. 

To the man of science, however, this identity 
of beauty signifies nothing. His concern, in the 
first instance, is not with the forms but with the 
natures of things. It is no valid answer to him, 
when he asks tlie difference between the moss and 
the cairngorm, the frost-work and the fern, to be 
assured that both are beautiful. For no funda- 
mental distinction in Science depends upon beauty. 
He wants an answer in terms of chemistry, are 
they organic or inorganic ? or in terms of biology, 
are they living or dead? But when he is told 
that the one is living and the other dead, he is in 
possession of a characteristic and fundamental 
scientific distinction. From this point of view, 
however much they may possess in common of 
material substance and beauty, they are separated 
from one another by a wide and unbriclged gulf. 
The classification of these forms, therefore, de- 
pends upon the standpoint, and we should pro^ 
nounce them like or unlike, related or unrelated, 
according as we judged them from the point of 
view of Art or of Science. 

The drift of these introductoiy parr. graphs 
must already be apparent. We j'lopcse to in- 
ijuire whether among men, clothed apparently 



CLASSIFICATION. 335 

with a common beauty of character, there may 
not yet be distinctions as radical as between the 
crystal and the shell; and, further, whether the 
current classification of men, based upon Moral 
Beauty, is wholly satisfactory either from the 
standpoint of Science or of Christianity. Here, 
for example, are two characters, pure and elevated^ 
adorned with conspicuous virtues, stirred b}^ lofty 
impulses, and commanding a spontaneous admira- 
tion from all who look on them — may not this 
similarity of outward form be accompanied by a 
total dissimilarity of inward nature ? Is the ex- 
ternal appearance the truest criterion of the ulti- 
mate nature ? Or, as in the crystal and the shell, 
may there not exist distinctions more profound 
and basal ? The distinctions drawn between men, 
in short, are commonly based on the outward ap- 
pearance of goodness or badness, on the ground of 
moral beauty or moral deformity — is this classifi- 
cation scientific ? Or is there a deeper distinction 
between the Christian and the not-a-Christian as 
fundamental as that between the oro^anic and the 
inorc^anic 



? 



There can be little doubt, to begin with, that 
with the great majority of people religion is re- 
garded as essentially one with morality. Whole 
schools of philosopliy have treated the Christian 
Religion as a question of beauty, and discussed 
its place among other S3^stems of ethic. Even 
those systems of theology which profess to draw 
a deeper distinction have rarely succeeded in es- 
tablishing it upon any valid basis, or seem even 



336 CLA SSIFICA TION, 

to have made that distinction perceptible to others. 
So little, indeed, has the rationale of the science 
of religion been understood that there is still 
no more unsatisfactory province in theology 
than where morality and religion are contrasted, 
and the adjustment attempted between moral 
philosophy and what are known as the doctrines 
of grace. 

Examples of this confusion are so numerous 
that if one were to proceed to proof he would 
have to cite almost the entire European philosophy 
of the last three hundred years. From Spinoza 
downward through the whole naturalistic school, 
Moral Beauty is persistent!}^ regarded as synony- 
mous with religion and the spiritual life. The most 
earnest thinking of the present day is steeped in 
the same confusion. We have even the remark- 
able spectacle presented to us just now of a sublime 
Morality-Religion divorced from Christianity alto- 
gether, and wedded to the baldest form of mate- 
rialism. It is claimed, moreover, that the moral 
scheme of this high atheism is loftier and more 
perfect than that of Christianity, and men are 
asked to take their choice as if the morality were 
everything, the Christianit)^ or the atheism which 
nourished it being neither here nor there. Others, 
again, studying this moral beauty carefully, have 
detected a something in its Christian forms which 
has compelled them to declare that a distinction 
certainly exists. But in scarcely a single instance 
is the gravity of the distinction more tlian dimly 
apprehended. Few conceive of it as other than 



CLASSIFICATION, 337 

a difference of degree, or could give a more defi- 
nite account of it than Mr. Matthew Arnold's 
" Religion is morality touched by Emotion " — an 
utterance significant mainly as the testimony of 
an acute mind that a distinction of some kind 
does exist. In a recent Symposium, where the 
question as to " The influence upon Morality of a 
decline in Religious Belief," was discussed at 
length by writers of whom this century is justly 
proud, there appears scarcely so much as a rec- 
ognition of the fathomless chasm separating the 
leading terms of debate. 

If beauty is the criterion of Religion, this view 
of the relation of religion to morality is justified. 
But what if there be the same difference in the 
beauty of two separate characters that there is 
between the mineral and the shell ? What if 
there be a moral beauty and a spiritual beauty ? 
What answer shall we get if we demand a more 
scientific distinction between characters than that 
based on mere outward form ? It is not enough 
from the standpoint of biological religion to say 
of two characters that both are beautiful. For, 
again, no fundamental distinction in Science 
depends upon beauty. We ask an answer in 
terms of biology, are they flesh or spirit ; are they 
living or dead ? 

If this is really a scientific question, if it is a 

question not of moral philosophy only, but of 

biology, we are compelled to repudiate beauty as 

the criterion of spirituality. It is not, of course, 

• meant by this that spirituality is not morally 

22 



338 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

beautiful. Spirituality must be morally very beau- 
tiful — so much so that popularly one is justified in 
judging of religion by its beauty. Nor is it meant 
that morality is not a criterion. All that is con- 
tended for is that, from the scientific standpoint, 
it is not the criterion. We can judge of the crystal 
and the shell from many other standpoints besides 
those named, each classification having an import- 
ance in its own sphere. Thus we might class 
them according to their size and weight, their 
percentage of silica, their use in the arts, or their 
commercial value. Each science or art is entitled 
to regard them from its own point of view ; and 
when the biologist announces his classification he 
does not interfere with those based on other 
grounds. Only, having chosen his standpoint, he 
is bound to frame his classification in terms of it. 

It may be well to state emphaticall}', that in 
proposing a new classification — or rather, in reviv- 
ing the primitive one — in the spiritual sphere we 
leave untouched, as of supreme value in its own 
province, the test of morality. Morality is 
certainly a test of religion — for most practical 
purposes the very best test. And so far from 
tending to depreciate morality, the bringing into 
prominence of the true basis is entirely in its 
interests — in the interests of a moral beauty, in- 
deed, infinitely surpassing the highest attainable 
perfection on merely natural lines. 

The warrant for seeking a further classification 
is twofold. It is a princixjle in science that classifi- 
cation should rest on the most basal characteris- • 



CLASSIFICATION. 339 

tics. To determine what these are may not al- 
ways be easy, but it is at least evident that a 
classification framed on the ultimate nature of or- 
ganisms must be more distinctive than one based 
on external characters. Before the principles of 
classification were understood, organisms were in- 
variably arranged according to some merely 
external resemblance. Thus plants were classed 
according to size as Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees ; 
and animals according to their appearance as 
Birds, Beasts, and Fishes. The Bat upon this 
principle was a bird, the Whale a fish; and so 
thoroughly artificial were these early systems 
that animals were often tabulated among the 
plants, and plants among the animals. " In early 
attempts," says Herbert Spencer, " to arrange 
organic beings in some systematic manner, we see 
at first a guidance by conspicuous and simple 
characters, and a tendency towards arrangement 
in linear order. In successively later attempts, 
we see more regard paid to combinations of 
characters which are essential but often incon- 
spicuous ; and a gradual abandonment of a linear 
arrangement for an arrangement in divergent 
groups and re-divergent sub-groups. ^ Almost all 
the natural sciences have already passed through 
these stages ; and one or two which rested entirely 
on external characters have all but ceased to exist 
— Conchology, for example, which has yielded its 
place to Malacology. Following in the wake of 
the other sciences, the classifications of Theology 
•■ ** Principles of Biology," p. 294. 



340 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

may have to be remodelled in the same way. The 
popular classification, whatever its merits from a 
practical point of view, is essentially a classifica- 
tion based on Morphology. The whole tendency 
of science now is to include along with morphology 
ical considerations the profounder generalizations 
of Physiology and Embryology. And the con- 
tribution of the latter science especially has been 
found so important that biology henceforth must 
look for its classification largely to Embryological 
characters. 

But apart from the demand of modern scientific 
culture it is palpably foreign to Christianity, not 
merely as a Philosophy but as a Biology, to classify 
men only in terms of the former. And it is some- 
what remarkable that the writers of both the Old 
and New Testaments seem to have recognized the 
deeper basis. The favorite classification of the 
Old Testament was into "the nations which knew 
God " and " the nations which knew not God " — 
a distinction which we have formerly seen to be, 
at bottom, biological. In the New Testament 
again the ethical characters are more prominent, 
but the cardinal distinctions based on regenera- 
tion, if not always actually referred to, are 
throughout kept in view, both in the sayings of 
Christ and in the Epistles. 

What then is the deeper distinction drawn by 
Christianity? What is the essential difference 
between the Christian and the not-a-Christian, be- 
tween the spiritual beauty and the moral beauty? 
It is the distinction between the Organic and the 



CLASSIFICATION. 34I 

Inorganic. Moral beauty is the product of the 
natural man, spiritual beauty of the spiritual man. 
And these two, according to the law of Biogene- 
sis, are separated from one another by the deepest 
line known to Science. This Law is at once the 
foundation of Biology and of Spiritual religiono 
And the whole fabric of Christianity falls into 
confusion if we attempt to ignore it. The Law 
of Biogenesis, in fact, is to be regarded as the 
equivalent in biology of the First Law of Motion 
.in physics : Every body continues in its state of 
rest or of uniform motion in a straight line^ except 
in so far as it is compelled hy forces to change that 
state. The first Law of biology is : That which 
is Mineral is Mineral ; that which is Flesh is 
Flesh; that wliich is Spirit is Spirit. The mineral 
remains in the inorganic world until it is seized 
ujDon by a something called Life outside the inor- 
ganic world ; the natural man remains the natural 
man, until a Spiritual Life from without the na- 
tural life seizes upon him, regenerates him, changes 
him into a spiritual man. The peril of the illus- 
tration from the laAV of motion will not be felt 
at least by those who appreciate the distinction 
between Physics and biology, between Energ}^ and 
Life. The change of state here is not as in physics 
a mere change of direction, the affections directed 
to a new object, the will into a ncAV channel. 
The change involves all this, but is something 
deeper. It is a change of nature, a regenera- 
tion, a passing from death into life. Hence 
relatively to this higher life the natural life is no 



342 , CLASSIFICATION. 

longer Life, but Death, and the natural man from 
the standpomt of Christianity is dead. Whatever 
assent the mind may give to this proposition, how- 
ever much it has been overlooked in the past, 
however it compares with casual observation, it is 
certain that the Founder of the Christian religion 
intended this to be the keystone of Christianity. 
In the proposition That ivhich is flesh is flesh, and 
that which is spirit is sjnrit^ Christ formulates the 
first law of biological religion, and lays the basis 
for a final classification. He divides men into two 
classes, the living and the not-living. And Paul 
afterwards carries out the classification consist- 
ently, making his entire system depend on it, and 
throughout arranging men, on the one hand as 
7rvc6»,aarr/v-o9 — spiritual, on the other as (pu/'./^o? — car- 
nal, in terms of Christ's distinction. 

Suppose now it be granted for a moment that 
the character of the not-a-Christian is as beautiful 
as that of the Christian. This is simply to say 
that the crystal is as beautifal as the organism. 
One is quite entitled to hold this ; but what he is 
not entitled to hold is that both in the same sense 
are living. He that hath the Son hath Life, and he 
that hath not the Son of God hath not Life. And 
in the face of this law, no other conclusion is pos- 
sible than that that which is flesh remains flesh. 
No matter how great the development of beauty, 
that which is flesh is withal flesh. The elaborate- 
ness or the perfection of the moral development 
in any given instance can do nothing to break 
down this distinction. Man is a moral animal, 



CLASSIFICA TION. 343 

and can, and ought to, arrive at great natural 
beauty of character. But this is simply to obey 
the law of his natiire — the law of his flesh ; and 
no progress along that line can project him into 
the spiritual sphere. If any one choose to claim 
that the mineral beauty, the fleshly beauty, the 
natural moral beauty, is all he covets, he is en- 
titled to his claim. To be good and true, pure 
and benevolent in the moral sphere, are high and, 
so far, legitimate objects of life. If he deliber- 
ately stop here, he is at liberty to do so. But 
what he is not entitled to do is to call himself a 
Christian, or to claim to discharge the functions 
peculiar to the Christian life. His morality is 
mere crystallization, the crystallizing forces having 
had fair play in his development. But these 
forces have no more touched the sphere of Chris- 
tianity than the frost on the window-pane can do 
more than simulate the external forms of life. 
And if he considers that the high development to 
which he has reached may pass by an insensible 
transition into spirituality, or that his moral na- 
ture of itself may flash into the flame of regener- 
ate Life, he has to be reminded that in spite of 
the apparent connection of these things from one 
standpoint, from another there is none at all, or 
none discoverable by us. On the one hand, there 
being no such thing as Spontaneous Generation, 
his moral nature, however it may encourage it, 
cannot generate Life ; while, on the other, his 
high organization can never in itself result in 



344 <^LA SSIFICA TION. 

Life, Life beiog always the cause of organization 

and never the effect of it. 

The practical question may now be asked, is this 
distinction palpable ? Is it a mere conceit of 
Science, or what human interests attach to it? 
If it cannot be proved that the resulting moral or 
spiritual beauty is higlier in the one case than in 
the other, the biological distinction is useless^, 
And if the objection is pressed that the spiritual 
man has nothing further to effect in the direction 
of morality, seeing that the natural man can 
successfull}^ compete with him, the questions thus 
raised become of serious signiHcance. That 
objection would certainly be fatal which could 
show that the spiritual world was not as high in 
its demand for lofty morality as the natural ; and 
that biology would be equally false and dangerous 
which should in the least encourage the view that 
"without holiness " a man could "see the Lord.'* 
These questions, accordingly, we must briefly con- 
sider. It is necessar}^ to premise, however, that 
the difficulty is not peculiar to the present position. 
This is simply the old difficulty of distinguishing 
spirituality and morality. 

In seeking whatever light Science may have to 
offer as to the difference between the natural and 
the spiritual man, we first submit the question to 
Embryology. And if its actual contribution is 
small, we shall at least be indebted to it for an 
important reason why the difficulty should exist 
at all. That there is grave difficulty in deciding 
between two given characters, the one natural, 



CLASSIFICATION. 345 

the other spiritual, is conceded. But if we can 
find a sufficient justification for so perplexing a 
circumstance, the fact loses weight as an objection, 
and the whole problem is placed on a different 
footing. 

The difference on the score of beauty between 
the crystal and the shell, let us say once more, is 
imperceptible. But fix attention for a moment, 
not upon their appearance, but upon their possi- 
bilities, upon their relation to the future, and 
upon their place in evolution. The crystal has 
reached its ultimate stage of development. It 
can never be more beautiful than it is now. Take 
it to pieces and give it the opportunity to beautify 
itself afresh, and it will just do the same thing 
over again. It will form itself into a six-sided 
pyramid, and go on repeating this same form ad 
infinitum as often as it is dissolved, and without 
ever improving by a hairs-breadth. Its law of 
'^.rystallization allows it to reach this limit, and 
nothing else within its kingdom can do any more 
for it. In dealing with the crystal, in short, 
we are dealing with the maximum beauty of 
the inorganic world. But in dealing with the 
shell, we are not dealing with the maximum 
achievement of the organic world. In itself it is 
one of the humblest forms of the invertebrate 
sub-kingdom of the organic world ; and there are 
other forms within this kingdom so different from 
the shell in a hundred respects that to mistake 
them would simply be impossible. 

In dealing with a man of fine moral character, 



346 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

again, we are dealing with the highest achieve- 
ment of the organic kingdom. But in dealing 
with a spiritual man we are dealing with tlie lowest 
form of life in the s'piritual world. To contrast 
the two, therefore, and marvel that the one is 
apparently so little better than the other, is un- 
scientific and unjust. The spiritual man is a mere 
unformed embryo, hidden as yet in his earthly 
chrysalis-case, while the natural man has the 
breediug and evolution of ages represented in his 
character. But what are the possibilites of this 
spiritual organism ? What is yet to emerge from 
this chrysalis-case ? The natural character finds 
its limits within the organic sphere. But who is to 
define the limits of the spiritual? Even now it is 
very beautiful. Even as an embryo it contains 
some prophecy of its future glory. But the point 
to mark is, that it doth not yet appear luhat it shall 
he. 

The want of organization, thus, does not sur- 
prise us. All life begins at the Amoeboid stage. 
Evolution is from the simple to the complex ; and 
in every case it is some time before organization 
is advanced enough to admit of exact classification. 
A naturalist's only serious difficulty in classifica- 
tion is when he comes to deal with low or embry- 
onic forms. It is impossible, for instance, to mis- 
take an oak for an elephant : but at the bottom 
of the vegetable series, and at the bottom of the 
animal series, there are organisms of so doubtful 
a character that it is equally impossible to distin- 
guish them. So formidable, indeed, has been this 



CLA SSIFICA TION, 347 

difficulty that Hseckel has had to propose an in- 
termediate regnum protisticum to contain those 
forms the rudimentary character of which makes 
it impossible to apply the determining tests. 

We mention this merely to show the difficulty 
of classification and not for analogy ; for the 
proper analogy is not between vegetal and animal 
forms, whether high or low, but between the living 
and the dead. And here the difficulty is certainly 
not so great. By suitable tests it is generally 
possible to distinguish the organic from the inor- 
ganic. The ordinary eye ma}^ fail to detect the 
difference, and innumerable forms are assigned by 
the popular judgment to the inorganic w^orld 
which are nevertheless undoubtedly alive. And 
it is the same in the spiritual world. To a cursory 
glance these rudimentary spiritual forms may not 
seem to exhibit the phenomena of Life, and there- 
fore the living and the dead may be often classed 
as one. But let the appropriate scientific tests be 
applied. In the almost amorphous organism, the 
physiologist ought already to be able to detect 
the symptoms of a dawning life. And further 
research might even bring to light some faint 
indication of the lines along which the future de- 
velopment was to proceed. Now it is not impossible 
that among the tests for Life there may be some 
which may fitly be applied to the spiritual organism. 
We may therefore at this point hand over the prob- 
lem to Physiologv. 

The tests for Life are of two kinds. It is re- 
markable that one of them was proposed, in the 



348 CLA SSI PICA TJON. 

spiritual sphere, by Christ. Foreseeing the diffi- 
culty of determining the characters and functions 
of rudimentary organisms, He suggested that the 
point be decided by a further evolution. Time for 
development was to be allowed, during which the 
marks of Life, if any, would become more pro- 
nounced, while in the meantime judgment was to 
be suspended. " Let both grow together, " He said, 
" until the harvest." This is a thoroughly scien- 
tific test. Obviously, however, it cannot assist us 
for the present — except in the way of enforcing 
extreme caution in attempting any classification at 
all. 

The second test is at least not so manifestly im- 
practicable. It is to apply the ordinary methods 
by which biology attempts to distinguish the 
organic from the inorganic. The characteristics 
of Life, according to Physiology, are four in num- 
ber — Assimilation, Waste, Reproduction, and 
Spontaneous Action. If an organism is found to 
exercise these functions, it is said to be alive. 
Now these tests, in a spiritual sense, might fairly 
be applied to the spiritual man. The experiment 
would be*a delicate one. It might not be open to 
ever}^ one to attempt it. This is a scientific ques- 
tion ; and the experiment would have to be con- 
ducted under proper conditions and by competent 
persons. But even on the first statement it will be 
plain to all who are familiar with spiritual diag- 
nosis that the experiment could be made, and es- 
pecially on oneself, with some hope of success. Bio- 
logical considerations, however, would warn us not 



CLASSIFICATION. 349 

to expect too much. Whatever be the inadequacy 
of Morphology, Physiology can never be studied 
apart from it ; and the investigation of function 
merely as function is a task of extreme difficulty. 
Mr. Herbert Spencer affirms, " We have next to 
no power of tracing up the genesis of a function 
- considered purely as a function — no opportunity 
of observing the progressivelj^-increasing quanti- 
ties of a given action that have arisen in any 
order of organisms. In nearly all cases we are 
able only to establish the greater growth of the 
part which we have found performs the action, 
and to infer that greater action of the part has 
accompanied greater growth of it." ^ Such being 
the case, it would serve iio purpose to indicate 
the details of a barely possible experiment. We 
are merely showing, at the moment, that the 
question " How do I know that I am alive " is not, 
in the spiritual sphere, incapable of solution. 
One might, nevertheless, single out some distinc- 
tively spiritual function and ask himself if he 
consciousl}^ discharged it. The discharging of 
that function is, upon bi( logical principles, equiv- 
alent to being alive, and therefore the subject of 
the experiment could certainly come to some con- 
clusion as to his place on a biological scale. The 
real significance of his actions on the moral scale 
might be less easy to determine, but he could at 
least tell where he stood as tested by the standard 
of life — he would know whether he were living 
or dead. After all, the best test for Life is just 

» " Principles of Biology," vol. ii. pp. 222, 223. 



350 CLASSIFICATION. 

living. And living consists, as we have formerly- 
seen, in corresponding with Environment. Those 
therefore who find within themselves, and regu- 
larly exercise, the faculties for corresponding with 
the Divine Environment, may be said to live the 
Spiritual Life. 

That this Life also, even in the embryonic or- 
ganism, ought already to betray itself to others, 
is certainly what one would expect. Every or- 
' ganism has its own reaction upon Nature, and the 
reaction of the spiritual organism upon the com- 
munity must be looked for. In the absence of 
any such reaction, in the absence of any token 
that it lived for a higher purpose, or that its real 
interests were those of the Kingdom to which it 
professed to belong, we should be entitled to ques- 
tion its being in that Kingdom. It is obvious 
that each Kingdom has its own ends and interests, 
its own functions to discharge in Nature. It is 
also a law that every organism lives for its King- 
dom. And man's place in Nature, or his position 
among the Kingdoms, is to be decided by the 
characteristic functions habituall}^ discharged by 
him. Now when the habits of certain individuals 
are closely observed, when the total effect of their 
life and work, with regard to the community, is 
gauged — as carefully observed and gauged as the 
influence of certain individuals in a colony of ants 
might be observed and gauged by Sir John Lub- 
bock — there ought to be no difiiculty in deciding 
whether they are living for the Organic or for the 
Spiritual ; in plainer language, fur the world or 



CLA SSIFICA TION. 3 5 i 

for God. The question of Kingdoms, at least, 
would be settled without mistake. The place of 
any given individual in his own Kingdom is a 
different matter. That is a question possibly for 
ethics. But from the biological standpoint, if a 
man is living for the world it is immaterial how 
well he lives for it. He ought to live Avell for it 
However important it is for his own Kingdom, it 
tioes not affect his biological relation to the other 
Kingdom whether his character is perfect or im- 
perfect. He may even to some extent assume 
the outward form of organisms belonging to the 
higher Kingdom ; but so long as his reaction 
upon the world is the reaction of his species, he 
is to be classed with his species, so long as the 
bent of his life is in the direction of the Avorld, he 
remains a worldling. 

Recent botanical and entomological researches 
have made Science familiar with what is termed 
Mimicry. Certain organisms in one Kingdom as- 
sume, for purposes of their own, the outward form 
of organisms belonging to another. This curious 
hypocrisy is practiced both by plants and animals, 
the object being to secure some personal advant- 
age, usually safety, which would be denied were 
the organism always to play its part in Nature in 
fvopria persona. Thus the Ceroxylus laceratus of 
Borneo has assumed so perfectly the disguise of a 
moss-covered branch as to evade the attack of 
insectivorous birds ; and others of the walking- 
stick insects and leaf-butterflies practice similar 
deceptions with great effrontery and success. It 



352 CLASSIFICATION. 

is a startling result of the indirect influence r L 
Christianity, or of a spurious Christianity, that 
the religious world has come to be populated — 
how largely one can scarce venture to think — with 
mimetic species. In few cases, probably, is this a 
conscious deception. In many, doubtless, it is in- 
duced, as in -Ceroxylus^ by the desire for safety. 
But in a majorit}^ of instances it is the natural 
effect of the prestige of a great system upon those 
who, coveting its benedictions, yet fail to under- 
stand its true nature, or decline to bear its pro- 
founder responsibilities. It is here that the test 
of Life becomes of supreme importance. No 
classification on the ground of form can exclude 
mimetic species, or discover them to themselves. 
But if man's place among the Kingdoms is deter- 
mined by his functions, a careful estimate of his 
life in itself and in its reaction upon surrounding 
lives, ought at once to betray his real position. 
No matter what ma^^ be the moral uprightness of 
his life, the honorableness of his career, or the 
orthodoxy of his creed, if he exercises the function 
of loving the world, that defines his world— he 
belongs to the Organic Kingdom. He cannot in 
that case belong to the higher Kingdom. "If any 
man love the world, the love of the Father is not 
in him." After all, it is b}" the general bent of a 
man's life, b}^ his heart-impulses and secret desires, 
his spontaneous actions and abiding motives, that 
his generation is declared. 

The. exclnsiveness of Christianity, separation 
from the world, uncompromising allegiance to the 



CLA SSIFICA TION. 3 5 3 

Kingdom of God, entire surrender of body, soul, 
and spirit to Christ — these are truths which rise 
into prominence from time to time, become the 
watch-words of insignificant parties, rouse the 
church to attention and the world to opposition, 
and die down ultimately for Avant of lives to live 
them. The few enthusiasts who distinguish in 
these requirements the essential conditions of en- 
trance into the Kingdom of Christ are overpow- 
ered by the weight of numbers, who see nothing 
more in Christianity than a mild religiousness, 
and who demand nothing more in themselves or 
in their fellow- Christians than the participation in 
a conventional worship, the acceptance of tradi- 
tional beliefs, and the living of an honest life. 
Yet nothing is more certain than that the enthu- 
siasts are right. Any impartial survey — such as 
the unique analysis in " Ecce Homo " — of the 
claims of Christ and of the nature of His society, 
will convince any one who cares to make the in- 
quiry of the outstanding difference between the 
system of Christianity in the original contempla- 
tion and its representations in modern life. Chris- 
tianity marks the advent of what is simply a new 
Kingdom. Its distinctions from the Kingdom 
below it are fundamental. It demands from its 
members activities and responses of an altogether 
novel order. It is, in the conception of its 
Founder, a Kingdom for which all its adherents 
must henceforth exclusively live and work, and 
which opens its gates alone upon those who, hav- 
ing counted the cost, are prepared to follow it if 

23 



354 ^^^ SSI PICA TION, 

need be to the death. The surrender Christ de- 
manded was absolute. Every aspirant for mem- 
bership must seek jir^t the Kingdom of God. 
And in order to enforce the demand of allegiance, 
or rather with an unconsciousness which contains 
the finest evidence for its justice, He even assumed 
the title of King — a claim which in other circum- 
stances, and were these not the symbols of a 
higher royalty seems so strangely foreign to one 
who is meek and lowly in heart. 

But this imperious claim of a Kingdom upon its 
members is not peculiar to Christianity. It is the 
law in all departments of Nature that every or- 
ganism must live for its Kingdom. And in defin- 
ing living /(9r the higher Kingdom as the condition 
of living in it, Christ enunciates a principle which 
all Nature has prepared us to expect. Every 
province has its peculiar exactions, every Kingdom 
levies upon its subjects the tax of an exclusive 
obedience, and punishes disloyalty always with 
death. It was the neglect of this principle — that 
every organism must live for its Kingdom if it is 
to live in it — which first slowly depopulated the 
spiritual world. The example of its Founder 
ceased to find imitators, and the consecration of 
His early followers came to be regarded as a 
superfluous enthusiasm. And it is this same mis- 
conception of the fundamental principle of all 
Kingdoms that has deprived modern Christianity 
of its vitality. The failure to regard the exclu- 
sive claims of Christ as more than accidental, rhe- 
torical, or ideal; the failure to discern the essen- 



CLASSIFICATION, 355 

tial difference between His Kingdom and all other 
systems based on the lines of natural religion, and 
therefore merely Organic ; in a word, the general 
neglect of the claims of Christ as the Founder of 
a new and higher Kingdom — these have taken the 
Tery heart from the religion of Christ and left its 
evangel without power to impress or bless the 
world. Until even religious men see the unique- 
ness of Christ's society, until they acknowledge 
to the full extent its claim to be nothing less than 
a new Kingdom, they will continue the hopeless 
attempt to live for two Kingdoms at once. And 
hence the value of a more explicit Classification. 
For probably the most of the difficulties of trying 
to live the Christian life arise from attempting to 
half- live it. 

As a merely verbal matter, this identification of 
the Spiritual World with what are known to 
Science as Kingdoms, necessitates an explanation. 
The suggested relation of the Kingdom of Christ 
to the Mineral and Animal Kingdoms does not, of 
course depend upon the accident that the Spiritual 
World is named in the sacred writings by the same 
word. This certainly lends an appearance of 
fancy to the generalization : and one feels tempted 
at first to dismiss it with a smile. But, in truth, 
it is no mere play on the woi:di Kingdom, Science 
demands the classification of every organism. 
And here is an organism of a unique kind, a 
living energetic spirit, a new creature which, b}' an 
act .of generation, has been begotten of God. 
Starting from the point that the spiritual life is to 



356 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

be studied biologically, we must at once proceed, 
as the first step in the scientific examination of 
this organism, to enter it in its appropriate class. 
Now two Kingdoms, at the present time, are 
known to Science — the Inorganic and the Organic* 
It does not belong to the Inorganic Kingdom, be- 
cause it lives. It does not belong to the Organic 
Kingdom, because it is endowed with a kind of 
Life infinitely removed from either the vegetal or 
animal. Where then shall it be classed ? We 
are left without an alternative. There being no 
Kingdom known to Science which can contain it, 
we must construct one. Or rather we must in- 
clude in the programme of Science a Kingdom al- 
ready constructed but the place of which in 
science has not yet been recognized. That King- 
dom is the Kingdom of God. 

Taking now this larger view of the content of 
science, we may leave the case of the individual 
and pass on to outline the scheme of Nature as a 
whole. The general conception will be as fol- 
lows : 

First, we find at the bottom of everything the 
Mineral or Inorganic Kingdom. Its character- 
istics are, first, that so far as the sphere above it 
is concerned, it is dead ; second, that although 
dead it furnishes the physical basis of life to the 
Kingdom next in order. It is thus absolutely es- 
sential to the Kingdom above it. And the more 
minutely the detailed structure and ordering of 
' the whole fabric are investigated it becomes in- 
creasingly apparent that the Inorganic Kingdom 



CLASSIFICATION. 357 

is the preparation for, and the prophecy of, the 
Organic. 

Second, we come to the world next in order, the 
world containing plant, and animal, and man, the 
Organic Kingdom. Its characteristics are, first, 
that so far as the sphere above it is concerned it is 
dead; and, second, although dead it supplies in 
turn the basis of life to -the Kingdom next in 
order. And the more minutely the detailed struc- 
ture and ordering of the whole fabric are investi- 
gated, it is obvious, in turn, that the Organic 
Kingdom is the preparation for, and the prophecy 
of, the Spiritual. 

Third, and highest, we reach the Spiritual 
Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Heaven. What its 
characteristics are, relatively to any hypothetical 
higher Kingdom, necessarily remain unknown. 
That the Spiritual, in turn, may be the prepara- 
tion for, and the prophecy of, something still 
higher is not impossible. But the very concep- 
tion of a Fourth Kingdom transcends us, and if it 
exist, the Spiritual organism, by the analogy, must 
remain at present wholly dead to it. 

The warrant for adding this Third Kingdom 
consists, as just stated, in the fact that there are 
organisms which from their peculiar origin, nature, 
and destiny cannot be fitly entered in either of 
the two Kingdoms now known to science. The 
Second Kingdom is proclaimed by the advent 
upon the stage of the First, of once-horn organisms. 
The Third is ushered in by the appearance, among 
these once-born organisms, of forms of life which 



358 CLA SSI PICA TION. 

have been born again — twice-horn organisms. The 
classification, therefore, is based, from the scien- 
tific side on certain facts of embryology and on 
the Law of Biogenesis ; and from the theological 
side on certain ^ facts of experience and on the 
doctrine of Regeneration. To those who hold 
either to Biogenesis or to Regeneration, there is 
no escape from a Third Kingdom.^ 

There is, in this conception of a high and spir- 
itual organism rising out of the highest point of 
the Organic Kingdom, in the hypothesis of the 
Spiritual Kingdom itself, a Third Kingdom follow- 
ing the Second in sequence as orderly as the Sec- 
ond follows the First, a Kingdom utilizing the 
materials of both the Kingdoms beneath it, con- 
tinuing their laws, and, above all, accounting for 
these lower Kingdoms in a legitimate way and 
complementing them in the only known way — 

1 Philosophical classifications in this direction (see 
for instance Godet's "Old Testament Studies," pp. 
2-40), owing to their neglect of the facts of Biogenesis 
can never satisfy the biologist — any more than the 
above will wholly satisfy the philosopher. Both are 
needed. Rothe, in his "Aphorisms," strikingly notes 
one point: "Es ist beachtenswerth, wie in der Schop- 
f ung immer aus der Auflosung der naehst niederen Stufe 
die naehst hohere hervorgeht, so dass jene immer das 
Substrat zur Erzeugung dieser Kraft der schopferischen 
Einwirkung bildet. (Wie es denn nicht anders sein 
kann bei einer Entwicklung der Kreatvir aus sieh 
selbst.) Aus den zersetzten Elementen erheben sich 
das Mineral, aus dem verwitterten Material die Pflanze, 
aus der verwesten Pflauze das Thier. So erhebt sich 
anch aus dem in die Elemente zuriicksinkenden Mate- 
riellen Menschen der Geist, das geistige Geschopf."— 
*'Stille Stunden," p. 64. 



CLA SSIFICA TION. 359 

there is in all this a suggestion of the greatest of 
modern scientific doctrines, the Evolution hy- 
pothesis, too impressive to pass unnoticed. The 
strength of the doctjine of Evolution, at least in 
its broader outlines, is now such that its verdict 
on any biological question is a consideration of 
moment. And if any further defence is needed 
for the idea of a Third Kingdom it may be found 
in the singular harmony of the whole conception 
with this great modern truth. It might even be 
asked whether a complete and consistent theory 
of Evolution does not really demand such a con- 
ception? Why should Evolution stop with the 
Organic? It is surely obvious that the comple- 
ment of Evolution is Advolution, and the inquiry, 
Whence has all this system of things come, is, 
after all, of minor importance compared with the 
question, Whither does all this tend? Science, 
as such, may have little to say on such a question. 
And it is perhaps impossible, with such faculties 
as we now possess, to imagine an Evolution with 
a future as great as its past. So stupendous is 
the development from the atom to the man that 
no point can be fixed in the future as distant from 
what man is now as he is from the atom. But it 
has been given to Christianity to disclose the lines 
of a further Evolution. And if Science also pro- 
fesses to offer a further Evolution, not the most 
sanguine evolutionist will venture to contrast it, 
either as regards the dignity of its methods, the 
magnificence of its aims, or the certainty of its 
hopes, with the prospects of the Spiritual King- 



360 CLASSIFICATION. 

dom. That Science has a prospect of some sort 
to hold out to man, is not denied. But its limits 
are already marked. Mr. Herbert Spencer, after 
investigating its possibilities fully, tells us, "Evo- 
lution has an impassable limit."^ It is the distinct 
claim of the Third Kingdom that this limit is not 
final. Christianity opens a way to a further de- 
velopment — a development apart from which the 
magnificent past of Nature has been in vain, and 
without which Organic Evolution, in spite of the 
elaborateness of its processes and the vastness of 
its achievements, is simply a stupendous cul de 
sac. Far as Nature carries on the task, vast as is 
the distance between the atom and the man, she 
has to lay down her tools when the work is just 
begun. Man, her most rich and finished product, 
marvellous in his complexity, all but Divine in 
sensibilty, is to the Third Kingdom not even a 
shapeless embryo. The old chain of processes 
must begin again on the higher plane if there is 
to be a further Evolution. The highest organism 
of the Second Kingdom — simple, immobile, dead 
as the inorganic crystal, towards the sphere above 
— must be vitalized afresh. Then from a mass of 
all but homogeneous ''protoplasm" the organism 
must pass through all the stages of differentiation 
and integration, growing in perfectness and beauty 
under the unfolding of the higher Evolution, until 
it reaches the Infinite Complexity, the Infinite , 
Sensibility, God. So the spiritual carries on the 
marvellous process to which all lower Nature min- 
^ "First Principles," p. 440, 



CLASSIFICATION. 361 

isters, and perfects it when the ministry of lower 
Nature fails. 

This conception of a further Evolution carries 
with it the final answer to the charge that, as 
regards morality, the Spiritual world has nothing 
to offer man that is not already within his reach. 
V/ill it be contended that a perfect morality is 
already within the reach of the natural man? 
What product of the organic creation has ever 
attained to the fullness of the stature of Him who 
is the Founder and Type of the Spiritual King- 
dom ? What do men know of the qualities en- 
joined in His Beatitudes, or at what value do 
they even estimate them? Proved by results, it 
is surely already decided that on merely natural 
lines moral perfection is unattainable. And even 
Science is beginning to waken to the momentous 
truth that Man, the highest product of the Or- 
ganic Kingdom, is a disappointment. But even 
were it otherwise, if even in prospect the hopes 
of the Organic Kingdom could be justified, its 
standard of beauty is not so high, nor, in spite of 
the dreams of Evolution, is its guarantee so cer- 
tain. The goal of the organisms of the Spiritual 
World is nothing less than this — to be " holy as 
He is holy, and pure as He is pure." And by the 
Law of Conformity to Type, their final perfection 
is secured. The inward nature must develop out 
according to its Type, until the consummation of 
oneness with God is reached. 

These proposals of the Spiritual Kingdom in 
the direction of Evolution are at least entitled to 



362 CLASSIFICATION. 

be carefully considered by Science. Christianity 
defines the highest conceivable future for man- 
kind. It satisfies the Law of Continuity. It 
guarantees the necessary conditions for carrying 
on the organism successfully, from stage to stage. 
It provides against the tendency to Degeneration. 
And finally, instead of limiting the yearning hope 
of final perfection to the organisms of a future 
age, — an age so remote that the hope for thou- 
sands of years must still be hopeless, — instead of 
inflicting this cruelty on intelligences mature 
enough to know perfection and earnest enough to 
wish it, Christianity puts the prize within immedi- 
ate reach of man. 

This attempt to incorporate the Spiritual King- 
dom in the scheme of Evolution, may be met by 
what seems at first sight a fatal objection. So far 
from the idea of a Spiritual Kingdom being in 
harmony with the doctrine of Evolution, it may 
be said that it is violently opposed to it. It an- 
nounces a new Kingdom starting off suddenly on 
a different plane and in direct violation of the 
primary principle of development. Instead ©f 
carrying the organic evolution further on its own 
lines, theology at a given point interposes a sud- 
den and hopeless barrier — the barrier between the 
natural and the spiritual — and insists that the 
evolutionary process must begin again at the be- 
ginning. At this point, in fact. Nature acts per 
saltum. This is no Evolution, but a Catastrophe 
— such a Catastrophe as must be fatal to any con* 
sistent development hypothesis. 



CLASSIFICATION. 363 

On the surface this objection seems final — but 
it is only on the surface. It arises from taking a 
too narrow view of what Evolution is. It takes 
evolution in zoology for Evolution as a whole. 
Evolution began, let us say, with some primeval 
nebulous mass in which lay potentially all future 
worlds. Under the evolutionary hand, the amor- 
phous cloud broke up, condensed, took definite 
shape, and in the line of true development assumed 
a gradually increasing complexity. Finally there 
emerged the cooled and finished earth, highly ■ 
differentiated, so to speak, complete and fully 
equipped. And what followed ? Let it be well 
observed — a Catastrophe. Instead of carrying 
the process further, the Evolution, if this is 
Evolution, here also abruptly stops. A sudden 
and hopeless barrier — the barrier between the In- 
organic and the Organic — interposes, and the 
process has to begin again at the beginning with 
the creation of Life. Here, then, is a barrier 
placed by Science at the close of the Inorganic 
similar to the barrier placed by Theology at the 
close of the Organic. Science has used every 
effort to abolish this first barrier, but there it still 
stands challenging the attention of the modern 
world, and no consistent theory of Evolution can 
fail to reckon with it. Any objection, then, to the 
Catastrophe introduced by Christianity between 
^ the Natural and Spiritual Kingdoms applies with 
equal force against the barrier which Science 
places between the Inorganic and the Organic. 

N 



364 CLASSIFICATION, 

The reserve of Life in either case is a fact, and a 
fact of exceptional significance. 

What then becomes of Evolution ? Do these 
two great barriers destroy it ? By no means. But 
they make it necessary to frame a larger doctrine. 
I And the doctrine gains immeasurably by such an 
^enlargement. For now the case stands thus : 
Evolution, in harmony with its own law that prog- 
ress is from the simple to the complex, begins 
itself to pass towards the complex. The mate- 
rialistic Evolution, so to speak, is a straight line. 
Making all else complex, it alone remains simple 
— unscientifically simple. But as Evolution un- 
folds everything else, it is now seen to be itself 
slowly unfolding. The straight line is coming 
out gradually in curves. At a given point a new 
force appears deflecting it ; and at another given 
point a new force appears deflecting that. These 
points are not unrelated points : these forces are 
not unrelated forces. The arrangement is still 
harmonious, and the development throughout 
obeys the evolutionary law in being from the gen- 
eral to the special, from the lower to the higher. 
What we are reaching, in short, is nothing less 
than the evolution of Evolution. 

Now to both Science and Christianity, and espe- 
cially to Science, this enrichment of Evolution is 
important. And, on the part of Christianity, the 
contribution to the system of Nature of a second 
barrier is of real scientific value. At first it may 
seem merely to increase the difficulty. But in 
reality it abolishes it. However paradoxical it 



CLASSIFICATION, 365 

seems, it is nevertheless the case that two barriers 
are more easy to understand than one, — two 
mysteries are less mysterious than a single mystery. 
For it requires two to constitute a harmony. 
One by itself is a Catastrophe. But, just as the 
recurrence of an eclipse at different periods makes 
an eclipse no breach of Continuity ; just as the 
fact that the astronomical conditions necessary to 
cause a Glacial Period will in the remote future 
again be fulfilled constitutes the Great Ice Age a 
normal phenomenon; so the recurrence of two 
periods associated with special phenomena of Life, 
the second higher, and by the law necessaril/ 
higher, is no violation of the principle of Evolu* 
tion. Thus even in the matter of adding a second 
to the one barrier of Nature, the Third Kingdom 
may already claim to complement the Science 
of the Second. The overthrow of Spontaneous 
Generation has left a break in Continuity which 
continues to put Science to confusion. Alone, it 
is as abnormal and perplexing to the intelle(/ as 
the first eclipse. But if the Spiritual Kingdom 
can supply Science with a companion-phenomenon, 
the most exceptional thing in the scientific sphere 
falls within the domain of Law. This, however, 
is no more than might be expected from a Third 
Kingdom. True to its place as the highest oi the 
Kingdoms, it ought to embrace all that lies be- 
neath and give to the First and Second their final 
explanation. 

How much more in the under-Kingdoms might 
be explained or illuminated upon this principle! - 



366 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

however tempting might be the inquiry, we can- 
not turn aside to ask. But the rank of the Third 
Kingdom in the order of Evolution implies that 
it holds the key to much that is obscure in the 
world around — much that, apart from it, must 
always remain obscure. A single obvious instance 
will serve to illustrate the fertility of the method. 
What has this Kingdom to contribute to Science 
with regard to the problem of the origin of Life 
itself? Taking this as an isolated phenomenon, 
neither the Second Kingdom, nor the Third, apart 
from revelation, has anything to pronounce. But 
when we observe the companion-phenomenon in 
the higher Kingdom, the question is simplified. 
It will be disputed by none that the source of Life 
in the Spiritual World is God. And as the same 
Law of Biogenesis prevails in both spheres, we 
may reason from the higher to the lower and 
affirm it to be at least likely that the origin of 
life there has been the same. 

There remains yet one other objection of a 
somewhat different order, and which is only re- 
ferred to because it is certain to be raised by those 
who fail to appreciate the distinctions of Biology. 
Those whose sympathies are rather with Philosophy 
than with Science may incline to dispute the allo- 
cation of so high an organism as man to the merely 
vegetal and animal Kingdom. Recognizing the 
immense moral and intellectual distinctions between 
him and even the highest animal, they would in- 
troduce a third barrier between man and animal 
■^a barrier even greater than that between the 



CLASSIFICATION. 367 

Inorganic and the Organic. Now, no science can 
be blind to these distinctions. The only questiou 
is whether they are of such a kind as to make it 
necessary to classify man in a separate Kingdom, 
And to do this the answer of Science is in tha 
negative. Modern Science knows only two King- 
doms — the Inorganic and the Organic. A barrier 
between man and animal there may be, but it is a 
different barrier from that which separates In- 
organic from Organic. But even were this to be 
denied, and in spite of all science it will be denied, 
it would make no difference as regards the general 
question. It would merely interpose another 
Kingdom between the Organic and the Spiritual, 
the other relations remaining as before. Any one, 
therefore, with a theory to sjipport as to the 
exceptional creation of the Human Race will find 
the present classification elastic enough for his 
purpose. Philosophy, of course, may propose 
another arrangement of the Kingdoms if it chooses. 
It is only contended that this is the order de- 
manded by Biology. To add another Kingdom 
mid-way between the Organic and the Spiritual, 
could that be justified at any future time on 
scientific grounds, would be a mere question of 
further detail. 

Studies in Classification, beginning with con- 
siderations of quality, usually end with a refer- 
ence to quantity. And though one would will- 
ingly terminate the inquiry on the threshold of 
such a subject, the example of Revelation not less 



365 CLASSIFICA TION, 

than the analogies of Nature press for at least a 
general statement. 

The broad impression gathered from the utter- 
ances of the Founder of the Spiritual Kingdom is 
that the number of organisms to be included in it 
is to be comparatively small. The outstanding 
characteristic of the new Society is to be its 
selectness. *' Many are called," said Christ, '' but 
few are chosen." And when one recalls, on the 
one hand, the conditions of membership, and, on 
the other, observes the lives and aspirations of 
average men, the force of the verdict becomes 
apparent. In its bearing upon the general ques- 
tion, -such a conclusion is not without suggestive- 
ness. Here again is another evidence of the 
radical nature of Christianity. That " few are 
chosen " indicates a deeper view of the relation 
of Christ's Kingdom to the world, and stricter 
qualifications of membership, than lie on the sur- 
face or are allowed for in the ordinary practice of 
religion. 

The analogy of Nature upon this point is not 
less striking — it may be added, not less solemn. 
It is an open secret, to be read in a hundred analo- 
gies from the world around, that of the millions 
of possible entrants for advancement in any 
department of Nature the number ultimately 
selected for preferment is small. Here also " many 
are called and few are chosen." The analogies 
from the waste of seed, of pollen, of human lives, 
are too familiar to be quoted. In certain details, 
Dossibly, these comparisons are inappropriate. 



CLASSIFICATION. 369 

But there are other analogies, wider and more 
just, which strike deeper into the system of Na- 
ture. A comprehensive view of the whole field 
of Nature discloses the fact that the circle of the 
chosen slowly contracts as we rise in the scale of 
being. Some mineral, but not all, becomes vege- 
table ; some vegetable, but not all, becomes ani- 
mal ; some animal but not all, becomes human ; 
some human, but not all, becomes Divine. Thus 
the area narrows. At the base is the mineral, 
most broad and simple ; the spiritual at the apex, 
smallest, but most highly differentiated. So form 
rises above form, Kingdom above Kingdom. 
Quantity decreases as quality increases. 

The gravitation of the whole system of Nature 
toward quality is surely a phenomenon of com- 
manding interest. A.nd if among the more recent 
revelations of Nature there is one thing more sig- 
. nificant for Religion than another, it is the ma- 
jestic spectacle of the rise of Kingdoms towards 
scarcer yet nobler forms, and simpler yet diviner 
ends. Of the early stage, the first development 
of the earth from the nebulous matrix of space, 
Science speaks with reserve. The second, the 
evolution of each individual from the simple pro- 
toplasmic cell to the formed adult, is proved. The 
still wider evolution, not of solitary individuals, 
but of all the individuals within each province — 
in the vegetal world from the unicellular crypto- 
gam to the highest phanerogam, in the animal 
world from the amorphous amoeba to Man — is at 
least suspected, the gradual rise of types being at 
24 



3 70 CLA SSI PICA TION. 

all events a fact. But now, at last, we see the 
Kingdoms themselves evolving. And that su- 
preme law wliich has guided the development from 
simple to complex in matter, in individual, in sub- 
Kingdom, and in Kingdom, until only two or three 
great Kingdoms remain, now begins at the begin- 
ning again, directing the evolution of these mill- 
ion-peopled worlds as if they were simple cells or 
organisms. Thus, what applies to the individual 
applies to the family, what applies to the family 
applies to the Kingdom, what applies to the King- 
dom applies to the Kingdoms. And so, out of 
the infinite complexity there rises an infinite sim- 
plicity ; the foreshadowing of a final unity, of 
that 

**One God, one law, one element, 
And one far-off divine event, 
To which the whole creation moves." ' 

This is the final triumph of Continuity, the 
heart-secret of Creation, the unspoken prophecy 
of Christianity. To Science, defining it as a 
working principle, this mighty process of amelior- 
ation is simply Evolution, To Christianity, dis- 
cerning the end through the means, it is Redemp- 
tion. These silent and patient processes, elaborat- 
ing, eliminating, developing all from the first of 
time, conducting the evolution from millennium 
to millennium with unaltering purpose and un- 
faltering power, are the early stages in the re- 
demptive work — the unseen approach of that 
^ "In Memoriam." 



CLASSIFICATION. 371 

Kingdom whose strange mark is that it " cometh 
without observation." And these Kingdoms ris- 
ing tier above tier in ever increasing sublimity 
and beauty, their foundations visibly fixed in the 
past, their progress, and the direction of their 
progress, being facts in Nature still, are the signs 
which, since the Magi saw His star in the East, 
have never been wanting from the firmament of 
truth, and which in every age with growing clear- 
ness to the wise, and with ever-gathering mystery 
to the uninitiated, proclaim that ** the Kmgdom of 
God is at hand." 



SINSS. 



PUBLICATIONS OF 

Henry Altemus Company 

PHILADELPHIA 

ALTEMUS' ILLUSTRATED VADEMECUI^ SERIES. 

Containing the most popular works of standard 
authors. Handy Voi^ume, Large Type editions, 
with appropriate text and full-page illustrations. 
Superior paper and printing. Illuminated title 
pages, etched portraits, and original aquarelle 
frontispieces in eight colors. 

Full cloth, ivory finish, embossed gold and inlaid 
colors, with side titles, boxed, 40 cents. 



1 Abbe Constant In. Halevy. 

2 Adventures of a Brownie. Mulock. 

3 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

Carroll. 

4 American Notes. Kipling. 

5 Awtobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 

6 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Holmes. 

7 A Son of the Carolinas. Satlerthwaite. 

8 Antony and Cleopatra. Shakespeare 

9 A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakes- 

peare. 

11 Bab Ballads and Savoy Songs. Gilbert. 

12 Bacon's Essays. 

13 Balzac's Shorter Stories. 

14 Barrack^Room Ballads and Ditties. 

Kipling. 

15 Battle of Life. Dickens. 

16 Bigiow Papers. Lowell. 

17 Black Beauty. Sewell. 

18 Blithedale Romance, The. Hawthorne. 

19 Bracebridge Hall, Irving. 

20 Bryant's Poems. 



Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series.— Continued 

... 21 Beecher's Addresses. 

... 22 Best Thoughts. Henry Drummond. 

... 23 Brook's Addresses. 

... 26 Camille. Dumas, Jr. 

... 27 Carmen. Merhnee. 

... 28 Charlotte Temple; Rowson. 

... 29 Chesterfield's Letters, Sentences and 

Maxims. 
... 30 Child's Garden of Verses. Stevenson. 
... 31 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Byron. 
... 32 Chimes, The. Dickens. 
... 33 Christie's Old Organ. Walton. 
... 34 Christmas Carol, A. Dickens. 
... 35 Confessions of an Opium Eater. De 

Quincy. 
... 36 Cranford. Gaskell. 
... 37 Cricket on the Hearth. Dickens. 
... 38 Crown of Wild Olive, The. Ruskin. 
... 39 Comedy of Errors. Shakespeare. 
... 40 Crucifixion of Philip Strong. Sheldon. 
... 43 Day Breaketh, The. Shugert. 
... 44 Days with Sir Roger De Coverley. 

Addison. 
... 45 Discourses, Epictetus. 
... 46 Dog of Flanders, A. Ouida. 
... 47 Dream Life. Mitchell. 
... 48 Daily Food for Christians. 
... 49 Drummond's Addresses. 
... 51 Emerson's Essays, First Series. 
... 52 Emerson's Essays, Second Series. 
... 53 Endymion. Keats. 
... 54 Essays of Elia. Lamb. 
... 55 Ethics of the Dust. Ruskin. 
... 56 Evangeline. Longfellow. 



Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series.— Continued 

6i Fairy Land of Science. Buckley. 

62 Fanchon. Sand. 

63 For Daily Bread. Sienkiewicz. 

67 Grammar of Palmistry. St. Hill, 

68 Greek Heroes. Kingsley. 

69 Gulliver's Travels. Swift. 

70 Gold Dust. 

73 Hamlet. Shakespeare. 

74 Hania. Sienkiewicz. 

75 Haunted Man, The. Dickens. 

76 Heroes and Hero Worship. Carlyle. 

77 Hiawatha, The Song of, Longfellow. 

78 Holmes' Poems. 

79 House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne. 

80 House of the Wolf. Weyman. 

81 Hyperion. Longfellow. 

87 Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, fetome. 

88 Idylls of the King. Tennyson. 

89 Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture. 
Gladstone. 

90 In Black and White. Kipling. 

91 In Memoriam. Tennyson. 

92 Imitation of Christ. A' Kempis. 

93 In His Steps. Sheldon. 

95 Julius Csesar. Shakespeare- 

96 Jessica's First Prayer. Stretton. 

97 J. Cole. Gellibrand. 

98 John Ploughman's Pictures. Spurgeon. 

99 John Ploughman's Talk, Spurgeon. 
100 King Richard HI. Shakespeare. 
loi Kavanagh. Longfellow. 

102 Kidnapped. Stevenson. 

103 Knickerbocker's History of New York. 
Irving. 



Altemus* New Illustrated Vademecum Series.— Continued 



104 Keble's Christian Year. 

105 Kept for the Master's Use. HavergaL 

106 King Lear. Shakespeare. 

107 La Belle Nivernaise. Daudet. 

108 Laddie and Miss Toosey*s Mission. 

109 Lady of the Lake. Scott. 
no Lalla Rookh. Moore. 

111 Last Essays of Elia. Lamb. 

112 Lays of Ancient Rome, The. Macaulay, 

113 Let Us Follow Him. Sienkiewicz. 

114 Light of Asia. Arnold. 

115 Light That Failed, The. Kipling. 

116 Little Lame Prince. Mulock. 

117 Longfellow's Poems, Vol. !• 

118 Longfellow's Poems, Vol. II. 

119 Lowell's Poems. 

120 Lucile. Meredith. 

121 Line Upon Line. 

126 Magic Nuts, The. Moles-u/orth. 

127 Man on Lescaut. Pre vast. 

128 Marmion. Scott. 

129 Master of Ballantrae, The. Stevenson. 

130 Milton's Poems. 

131 Mine Own People. Kipling. 

132 Minister of the World, A. Mason. 

133 Mosses from an Old Manse. Hawthorne. 

134 Mulvaney Stories. Kipling. 

135 Macbeth. Shakespeare. 

140 Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 

Drummond. 

141 Nature, Addresses and Lectures. 

Emerson . 
145 Old Christmas. Irving. 



Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecam Series.— Continued 

146 Outre-Mer. Longfellow. 

147 Othello, the Moor of Venice. Shakespeare, 

150 Paradise Lost. Milton. 

151 Paradise Regained. Milton. 

152 Paul and Virginia. Sainte Pierre. 

153 Peter Schlemihl. Chamisso. 

154 Phantom Rickshaw. Kipling-. 

155 Pilgrim's Progress, The. Bunyan, 

156 Plain Tales from the Hills. Kipling. 

157 Pleasures of Life. Lubbock. 

158 Plutarch's Lives. 

159 Poe's Poems. 

160 Prince of the House of David. Ingraham. 

161 Princess and Maud. Tennyson. 

162 Prue and I. Curtis. 

163 Peep of Day. 

164 Precept Upon Precept. 
169 Queen of the Air. Ruskin. 

172 Rab and His Friends. Brown. 

173 Representative Men. Emerson. 

174 Reveries of a Bachelor. Mitchell. 

175 Rip Van Winkle. Irving. 

176 Romance of a Poor Young Man. Feuillet. 

177 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. 

178 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare. 

179 Robert Hardy's Seven Days. Sheldon. 

182 Samantha at Saratoga. Holley. 

183 Sartor Resartus. Carlyle. 

184 Scarlet Letter, The. Hawthorne, 

185 School for Scandal. Sheridan. 

186 Sentimental Journey, A. Sterne. 

187 Sesame and Lilies. Ruskin. ' 

188 Shakespeare's Heroines. Jameson. 

189 She Stoops to Conquer. Goldsmith. 



Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series.— Continued 

...190 Silas Marner. Eliot. 
...191 Sketch Book, The. Irving. 
...192 Snow Image, The, Hawthorne. 
..199 Tales from Shakespeare. Lamb. 
...200 Tanglewood Tales. Hawthorne. 
...201 Tartarin of Tarascon. Daudet. 
...202 Tartarin on the Alps. Daudet. 
...203 Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. Arthur. 
...204 Things Will Take a Turn. Harraden. 
...205 Thoughts. Marcus Aurelius. 
...206 Through The Looking Glass. Carroll. 
...207 Tom Brown's School Days. Hughes. 
...2c8 Treasure Island. Stevenson. 
...209 Twice Told Tales. Hawthorne. 
...210 Two Years Before the Mast. Dana. 
...211 The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare. 
...212 The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

Shakespeare. 
...217 Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe. 
...218 Undine. Fouque. 
...222 Vic, the autobiography of a fox-terrier. 

Marsh. 
...223 Vicar of Wakefield. Goldsmith. 
...226 Walden. Thoreau. 
...227 Water= Babies. Kingsley. 
...228 Weird Tales. Poe. 
...229 What is Art. Tolstoi. 
...230 Whittier's Poems, Vol, I. 
...231 Whittier's Poems, Vol. II. 
...232 Window in Thrums. Barrie. 
...233 Women's Work in the Home. Farrar. 
...234 Wonder Book, A. Hawthorne. 
...241 Yellowplush Papers, The. Thackeray. 
...244 Zoe. By author of Laddie^ etc. 



i 



Henry Altemus' Publications. 



ALTEMUS' ILLUSTRATED 
ONE SYLLABLE SERIES FOR YOUNG READERS. 



Embracing popular works arranged for the 
young folks in words of one syllable. 

Printed from extra large clear type on fine en- 
amelled paper and fully illustrated by famous 
artists. The handsomest line of books for young 
children before the public. 

Fine English cloth ; handsome, new, original 
designs. 50 cents. 

1. iCsop's Fables. 62 illustrations. 

2. A Child's Life of Christ. 49 illustrations. 

3. A Child's Story of the Bible. 72 illus- 

trations. 

4. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. 70 

illustrations. 

5. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 46 illus- 

trations. 

6. Swiss Family Robinson. 50 illustrations. 

7. Gulliver's Travels. 50 illustrations. 

8. Bible Stories for Little Children. 80 illus- 

trations. 



ALTEMUS' 
YOUNQ PEOPLES' LIBRARY. 

PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH. 



Robinson Crusoe. (Chiefly in words of one 
syllable.) His life and strange, surprising 
adventures, with 70 beautiful illustrations by 
Walter Paget. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With 42 
illustrations by John Tenniel. "The most de- 
lightful of children's stories. Elegant and 
delicious nonsense." — "Saturday Review." 

Through the Looking=g!ass and what Alice 
Found There. A companion to "Alice in 
Wonderland," with 50 illustrations by John 
Tenniel. 



Altemus* Young Peoples' Library.— Continued. 

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Arranged for 
young readers. With 50 full-page and text 
illustrations. 

A Child's Story of the Bible. With 72 full-page 

illustrations. 

A Child's Life of Christ. With 49 illustrations. 
Non-sectarian. Children are early attracted 
and sv/eetly riveted by the wonderful Story of 
the Master from the Manger to the Throne. 

Swiss Family Robinson. With 50 illustrations. 
The father of the family tells the tale of the 
vicissitudes through which he and his wife and 
children pass, the wonderful discoveries made 
and dangers encountered. The book is full of 
interest asd instruction. 

Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of 
America. With 70 illustrations. Every Am- 
erican boy and girl should be acquainted with 
the story of the life of the great discoverer, 
with its struggles, adventures and trials. 

The Story of Exploration and Discovery in 
Africa. With 80 illustrations. Records the 
experiences of adventures and discoveries in 
developing the "Dark Continent." 

The Fables of /Esop. Compiled from the best 
accepted sources. With 62 illustrations. The 
fables of ^sop are among the very earliest 
compositions of this kind, and probably have 
never been surpassed for point and brevity. 

Qulliver's Travels. Adapted for young readers, 
with 50 illustrations. 

Mother Goose's Rhymes, Jingles and Fairy 
Tales. With 234 illustrations. 

Lives of the Presidents of the United States. 

By Prescott Holmes. With portraits of the 
Presidents and also of the unsuccessful candi- 



Altemus' Young Peoples* Library.— Continued. 

dates for the office ; as well as the ablest of the 
Cabinet officers. Revised and up-to-date. 
The Story of Adventure in the Frozen Seas. 

With 70 illustrations. By Prescott Holmes. 
The book shows how much can be accomplished 
by steady perseverance and indomitable pluck. 

Illustrated Natural History. By the Rev. J. G. 
Wood, with So illustrations. This autHor has 
done more to popularize the study of natural 
history than any other writer. The illustrations 
are striking and life-like. 

A Child's History of England. By Charles 
Dickens, with 50 illustrations. Tired of listen- 
ing to his children memorize the twaddle of old- 
fashioned English history, the author covered 
the ground in his own peculiar and happy style 
for his own children's use. When the work 
was published its success was instantaneous. 

Black Beauty : The Autobir^graphy of a Horse. 
By Anna Sewell, with 50 illustrations. This 
work is to the animal kingdom what ' ' Uncle 
Tom's Cabin " was to the Afro- American. 

The Arabian Nights Entertainments. With 
130 illustrations. Contains the most favorably 
known of the stories. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales, With 55 illustrations. 
The tales are a wonderful collection, as in- 
teresting, from a literary point of view, as they 
are delightful as stories. 

Flower Fables. By Louisa May Alcott. With 
numerous illustrations, full-page and text. 

A series of very interesting fairy tales by the 
most charming of American story-tellers. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales. By Hans Christian 
Andersen. With 77 illustrations. 

These wonderful tales are not only attractive 
to the young, but equally acceptable to those 
of mature years. 



Altemus* Young Peoples' Library.— Continued. 

Grandfather's Chair ; A History for Youth. By 

Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 60 illustrations. 
The story of America from the landing of the 
Puritans to the acknowledgment without re- 
serve of the Independence of the United States. 

Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard. By Mary and 
Elizabeth Kirby, with 60 illustrations. Stories 
about Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Rice and Chinaware, 
and other accessories of the well-kept Cupboard. 

Battles of the War for Independence. By 
Prescott Holmes, with 70 illustrations. A 
graphic and full history of the Rebellion of the 
American Colonies from the yoke and oppres- 
sion of England. Including also an account of 
the second war with Great Britain, and the 
War with Mexico. 

Battles of the War for the Union. By Prescott 
Holmes, with 80 illustrations. A correct and 
impartial account of the greatest civil war in 
the annals of history. Both of these histories 
of American wars are a necessary part of the edu- 
cation of all intelligent American boys and girls. 

Water Babies. By Charles Kingsley, with 84 
illustrations. A charming fairy tale. 

Young People's History of the War with Spain. 
By Prescott Holmes, with 86 illustrations. The 
story of the war for the freedom of Cuba, 
arranged for young readers. 

Heroes of the United States Navy. By Hart- 
well James, with 65 illustrations. From the 
days of the Revolution until the end of the 
War with Spain. 

Military Heroes of the United States. By 
Hartwell James, with nearly 100 illustrations. 
Their brave deeds from Lexington to Santiago, 
told in a captivating manner. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin. By Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
with 50 illustrations. Arranged for young 
readers. 

Sea Kings and Naval Heroes. By Hartwell 
James, w4th 50 illustrations. 



Altemus' Illustrated Editions. 



ABBOTT'S Historical Series. 

PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH. 

A well-known and popular series r f biographical histories, 
by Jacob Abbott, containing the lives and deeds of foun ers 
of Kmpires, Her es and Heroines of History, Kings, Queens 
and Conquerors. 

Handsomely printed from large, clear type, on extra-fine 
super-calendered paper and embellished with half-tone 
frontispieces, numerous full-page and text illustrations and 
maps 

1 Romulus, the Founder of Rome. With 49 
illustrations. 

2 Cyrus the Great, the Founder of the 
Persian Empire. With 40 illustrations. 

3 Darius the Great, King of the Medes and 
Persian. With 34 illustrations. 

4 Xerxes the Great, King of Persia. With 
39 illustrations. 

5 Alexander the Great, King of Macedon. 
With 51 illustrations. 

6 Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. With 45 illus- 
trations. 

7 Hannibal, the Carthaginian. With 37 illus- 
trations. 

8 Julius Caesar, the Roman Conqueror. 
With 44 illustrations. 

9 Alfred the Great, of England. With 40 
illustrations. 

10 William the Conqueror, of England. With 
43 illustrations. 

11 Hernando Cortez, the Conqueror of 
Mexico. With 30 illustrations. 

12 Mary, Queen of Scots. With 45 illustrations. 

13 Queen Elizabeth, of England. With 49 
illustrations. 

14 King Charles the^First, of England. With 
41 illustrations. 

15 King Charles the Second, of England. 
With 38 illustrations. 

16 Maria Antoinette, Queen of France. With 
41 illustrations. 



Altemus' Illustrated Editions.— Continued. 

...17 Madam Roland, A Heroine of the French 
Revolution. With 42 illustrations. 

...18 Josephine, Empress of France. With 40 
illustrations. 



Altemus' Dainty Series of 
Choice Gift Books. 

PRICE, SO CENTS. 

Bound in half-white Vellum, illuminated sides, 
unique design iu gold, with numerous half-tone 
illustrations. Size, 6 ^^ x 8 inches. 

... I The Silver Buckle. By M. Nataline Crump- 
ton. With 12 illustrations. 
... 2 Charles Dickens* Children Stories. With 

30 illustrations. 
... 3 The Children's Shakespeare. With 30 

illustrations. 
... 4 Young Robin Hood. By G. Manville Fenn. 

With 30 illustrations. 
... 5 Honor Bright. By Mary C. Rowsell. With 

24 illustrations. 
... 6 The Voyage of the Mary Adair. By Frances 

E. Crompton. With 19 illustrations. 
... 7 The Kingfisher's Egg. By I^. T. Meade. 

With 24 illustrations. 
... 8 Tattine. By Ruth Ogden. With 24 illus- 
trations. 
... 9 The Doings of a Dear Little Couple. By 

Mary D. Brine. With 20 illustrations. 
...10 Our Soldier Boy. By G. Manville Fenn. 

With 23 illustrations. 
...II The Little Skipper. By G. Manville Fenn. 

With 22 illustrations. 
...12 Little Qervaise and other Stories. With 

22 illustrations. 
...13 The Christmas Fairy. By John Strange 

Winter. With 24 illustrations. 



ALTENUS^ ILLUSTRATED DEVOTIONAL SERIES 



An entirely new line of popular Religious Litera- 
ture, carefully printed on fine paper, daintily and 
durably bound in handy volume size. 

Full White Vellum, handsome new mosaic design 
in gold and colors, gold edges, boxed, 50 cents. 

I Abide in Christ. Murray. 

3 Beecher's Addresses. 

4 Best Thoughts. From Henry Druniniond, 

5 Bible Birthday Book. 

6 Brooks* Addresses. 

7 Buy Your Own Cherries, Kirton. 

8 Changed Cross, The. 

9 Christian Life. Oxenden, 
10 Christian Living, Meyer. 

12 Christie's Old Organ. Walton, 

13 Coming to Christ. Havergal. 

14 Daily Food for Christians. 

15 Day Breaketh, The. Shugert. 

17 Drummond's Addresses. 

18 Evening Thoughts. Havergal. 

19 Gold Dust. 

20 Holy in Christ. 

21 Imitation of Christ, The. A'Kempis. 

22 Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture. 

Gladstone, 

23 Jessica's First Prayer. Stretton. 

24 John Ploughman's Pictures. Spurgeon, 

25 John Ploughman's Talk. Spurgeon. 

26 Kept for the Master's Use. Havergal, 

27 Keble's Christian Year. 

28 Let Us Follow Him. Sienkiezvicz, 

29 Like Christ. Murray. 

30 Line Upon Line. 

31 Manliness of Christ, The. Hughes. 



Henry Altemus' Publications. 



..32 Message of Peace, The. Church. 
..33 Morning Thoughts. Havergal. 
..34 My King and His Service. Havergal. 
..35 Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 

^ .. , _ . Drummond. 

..37 Pathway of Promise. 

..38 Pathway of Safety. Oxenden. 

..39 Peep of Day. 

..40 Pilgrim's Progress, The. Bunyan. 

..41 Precept Upon Precept. 

..42 Prince of the House of David. Ingraham. 

..44 Shepherd Psalm. Meyer. 

..45 Steps Into the Blessed Life. Meyer. 

..46 Stepping Heavenward. Prentiss. 

..47 The Throne of Grace. 

..50 With Christ. Murray. 

The Rise of the Dutch Republic (a History). By John Loth- 
rop Motley. 55 full-page half-tone Engravings. Cpmplete in 
two volumes — over 1,600 pages. Crown 8vo. Cloth, per set, 
J2.00. Half Morocco, gilt top, per set, $3 25. 

Quo Vadis. A tale of the time of Nero, by Henryk Sienkiewicz. 
Complete and unabridged. Translated by Dr. S. A. Binion. 
Illustrated by M. De Lipman. Crown 8vo. Cloth, ornamen- 
tal, 515 pages, $1.25. 

With Fire and Sword. By the author ot "Quo Vadis." A 
tale of the past. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 825 pages, $1.00. 

Pan Michael. By the author of " Quo Vadis." A historical 
tale. Illustrated. Crown Bvo. 530 pages, $1.00. 

Julian, the Apostate. By S. Mereshkovski. Illustrated. Cloth 
i2mo. 450 pages, j^i.oo. 

Manual of flythology. For the use of Schools, Art Students, 
and General Readers, by Alexander S. Murray. With Notes, 
Revisions, and Additions by William H. Klapp. With 200 
illustrations and an exhaustive Index. Large i2mo. Over 
400 pages, $1.25. 

The Age of Fable; or Beauties of Mythology. By Thomas 
Bulfinch, with Notes, Revisions, and Additions by William H. 
Klapp. With 200 illustrations and an exhaustive Index. Large 
i2mo. 450 pages, $1.25. 

Stephen. A Soldier of the Cross. By Florence Morse 
Kingsley. author of " Titus, a Comrade of the Cross." Cloth, 
i2mo. 369 pages, ^i.oo. 



Henry Altemus' Publications. 



The Cross Triumphant. By Florence Morse Kingsley, author 
of " Paul and Stephen." Cloth, i2mo. 364 pages, $i.oo. 

Paul. A Herald of the Cross. By Florence Morse Kingsley. 
Cloth, i2mo. 450 pages, $1.00. 

The Pilgrim's Progress, as John Bunyan wrote it. A fac- 
simile reproduction of the first edition, published in 1678. 
Antique cloth, i2mo. $1.25. 

The Fairest of the Fair. By Hildegarde Hawthorne. Cloth, 
i6ino. {51.25. 

Around the World In Eighty Minutes. Contains over 100 
photographs of the most famous places and edifices, with des- 
criptive text. Cloth, 50 cents. 

Shakespeare's Complete Works. "With 64 Boydell, and 
numerous other illustrations, four volumes, over 3,000 pages. 
Half Morocco, ismo. Boxed, per set. I3.00. 

The Care of Children. By Elizabeth R. Scovil. Cloth, i2mo. 

^I.OO 

Preparation for Motherhood. By Elizabeth R. Sc©vil. Cloth, 
i2mo. 320 pages, Ji. 00. 

Baby's Requirements. By Elizabeth R. Scovil. Limp bind- 
ing, leatherette. 25 cents. 

Names for Children. By Elizabeth Robinson Scovil. Cloth, 
i2mo. 40 cents. 

Trif and Trixy. By John Habberton, author of " Helen's 
Babies." Cloth, i2mo. 50 cents. 

She Who Will Not When She May. By Eleanor G. Walton. 
Half-tone illustrations by C. P. M. Rumford. "An exquisite 
prose idyll." Cloth, gilt top, deckle edges. $1.00. 

A Son of the Carolinas. By C. E. Satterthwaite, Cloth, 
lamo. 280 pages, 50 cents. 

What Wamen Should Know. By Mrs. E. B. Duffy. Cloth, 
320 pages, 75 cents. 

Dore Masterpieces. 

The Dore Bible Gallery. Containing 100 full-page engravings 
by Gustave Dore. 

Milton's Paradise Lost. With 50 full-page engravings by Gus- 
tave Dore. 

Dant«'« Inferno. With 75 full-page engravings by Gustave 
Dore. 

Dante's Purgatory and Paradise. With 60 full-page engrav- 
ings by Gustave Dore. 

Tennyson's Idylls of the King. With 37 full-page engravings 
by Gustave Dore. 

The Rime of the Ancient ilarlner. By Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge, with 46 full-page engravings by Gustave Dore. 
Cloth, ornamental, large quarto (9 x 12). Each ^a.oo. 



ALTEMUS' EDITION SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. 




HANDY VOLUME SIZE. 


With a historical and critical introduction to each I 


vol 

] 


ume. by Professor Henry Morley. 


^imp cloth binding, gold top, illuminated title 


and frontispiece 35 cts. 


Paste-gram roan, flexible, gold top . . .50 cts. 


j_ 


Ail's Well that Ends Well. 


2, 


Antony and Cleopatra. 


3. 


A Midsummer Night's Dream. 


4. 


As You Like It. 


5. 


Comedy of Errors. 


6. 


Coriolanus. 


7- 


Cymbeline. 


8. 


Hamlet. 


9- 


Julius Caesar. 


10. 


King Henry IV. (Part 1.) 


II. 


King Henry IV. (Part II.) 


12 


King Henry V. 


13- 


King Henry VI. (Part 1.) 


14- 


King Henry VI. (Part II.) 


15- 


King Henry VI. (Part III.} 


16. 


King Henry VIII. 


17- 


King John. 


iS. 


King Lear. 


19. 


King Richard II. 


20. 


King Richard III. 


21. 


Love's Labour's Lost. 


22. 


Macbeth. 


23. 


Measure for Measure. 


24. 


Much Ado About Nothing. 


25- 


Othello. 


26. 


Pericles. 


27- 


Romeo and Juliet. 


28. 


The Merchant of Venice. 


29. 


The Merry Wives of Windsor. 


30- 


The Taming of the Shrew. 


31. 


The Tempest. 


32- 


The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 


33- 


The Winter's Tale. 


34. 


Timon of Athens. 


35. 


Titus Andronicus. 


36. 


Troilus and Cressida. 


37. 


Twelfth .Night. 


38. 


Venus and Adonis and Lucrece. 


39- 


Sonnets, Passionate Pilgrim, Etc. 



6 



^ ', aV - '• / r ^* ■ 







Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

'>>_ * g 1 A "^ <. ^ g ^/> * 'I N '' Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

^ ^^ ^'^''\^0^ '^^ Treatment Date: Dec. 2004 

\ \ "^ '^^ ^ '^' ^<> PreservationTechnologies 

? o \V '/* ^ '% '^^ A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

, J^ fXv '-^p, ^^ u . ^< J. -c- .^^ < 1 11 Thomson Park Drive 

ci-^ * "^ o ' ■* ^^*^ Cranberry Township, PA 16066 



i*^ , „ '^^ ^ <> Jl "* .^^ , (724) 779-211' 



4V 'f^^-. 






'^^, .-^^ 



■■^r^p^.p 



-^. .'^^ 



.^^^^.^^% 



,\^^V 









'^^ .# 



\', %, .v'^ o^k^^^ 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 541 347 1 



■IVM 



I 



